The Unholy Angel
by RTU Rocket
Summary: Threats in Kuoh Town force the dispatch of a devil that can guarantee the protection of the Gremory and Sitri heiresses. A single decision with far reaching consequences, ones that have Sona lamenting her fate. Of all the devils that could have been sent, why did it have to be her sister's queen? Cover by deviantart's Iceveyns.
1. Arrival

**Chapter I: Arrival**

 **[{Unholy Heading}]**

The rook was edged forward, just outside the range of her nearby knight. It was a tempting prize, but a clear sign of bait to someone who knew her, and her opponent knew her well. Still, the temptation to knock off one of Sona's strongest remaining pieces was too good to ignore and Rias sent her bishop in for the kill. It took everything Sona had to keep from smirking in earnest when she retaliated by shifting her knight, isolating the bishop in the corner slot while simultaneously preventing the brazen advance of Rias' last pawn. Sona sat back and watched as Rias tried to salvage her attack strategy.

She was getting antsy now, Sona knew her friend well enough to recognize the signs. She had shifted forward in her seat, her blue-green eyes narrowed slightly while she studied the board. Sona was also aware that it wasn't entirely about their match. She had noticed how Rias had become more aggressive in their bouts lately. Typically, the two of them would probe each other's lines, trying to manoeuvre the other's pieces into traps. Rias had opted for a more offensive approach recently, going so far as to adopt strategies that favoured the use of her pawns.

"I felt the presence of a fallen angel last night."

Rias nodded absently, her brow furrowed in thought while she reached for her remaining knight. "Issei had a run-in with one after his job. He's alright though, even managed to unlock his sacred gear in the process."

Sona's interest piqued at that. "Oh? Is it as much as you'd hoped?"

The pause that followed surprised her. Rias, herself, seemed to be mulling over the question. "I. . .believe there is more to it. It awakened as a twice critical." She elaborated at Sona's questioning look.

That would explain Rias' agitation. Sona knew that her friend had staked a great deal on her pawn baring a powerful sacred gear, perhaps even one of the thirteen strongest in creation, the longinus. If things didn't work out like she planned, Rias would find herself at a gross disadvantage in the days ahead. As much as she sympathized with her situation, there were other matters to discuss.

She reached for the board once more and let her remaining rook take Rias' knight. "That makes this the _second_ time these fallen angels have entered our grounds."

The emphasis she put on the number wasn't lost on Rias. She flinched, refusing to meet Sona' piercing stare and kept her eyes fixed on the board.

When they had first felt the fallen angels skirting the bounds of their shared territory, Sona had felt it merited a warning. Rias had insisted on taking care of it herself, though in truth she had her own plans. To say Sona was displeased when she had learned of it was an understatement, the lecture she had been given was bad enough, but it was Sona's insistence on dealing with further affairs together that truly haunted her. To know that her ploy with getting Issei into her peerage had cost her part of Sona's trust never sat well with her.

"I gave the fallen angel a warning. Based on his reaction, they didn't seem to know that devils operated here."

"Be that as it may, I still-"

Sona's response was cut off when the doors to their private room opened. A black haired girl bowed to the two. "Apologies for the interruption, but an. . .envoy from the Underworld has just arrived."

That made Sona pause. No-one had been expected, not that she was aware of anyway. A discrete glance to Rias confirmed much of the same. The hesitation from her queen had also made her curious. "Who is it Tsubaki?"

"It would seem to be someone's familiar, President. She says that her master will arrive soon and that he acts as an envoy of the satans."

Sona quirked a brow at that. It was unusual enough for a devil to send a familiar ahead of them, stranger still for a satan to send someone else in their place. There were simple spells for such communications and another easy matter to just set up a transportation circle and come personally if it was of a pressing nature. Still, as strange as it seemed, it would be improper for the heiress of a pillar family not to greet a messenger upon their arrival, particularly one affiliated with a satan.

Sona rose from her seat, sending a glance to Rias as a silent invitation. The red-head smiled at the consideration, acquiescing with a nod as she followed suit. They moved after Tsubaki, coming out of the private meeting area and into the student council room proper.

A set of tables had been arranged in a rough U formation with the president's desk in the open space at the front. The rest of Sona's peerage were already there, their usual diligence in working on school affairs had been exchanged for curiosity. Their eyes were trained upward, tracking the wild movements of what could only be the familiar Tsubaki mentioned. A small, luminous being flew around the area, wings flapping wildly while musical laughter filled the room. Her circumnavigation came to a halt after Sona and Rias entered.

She landed on the president's desk, the glow fading enough for her form to finally be visible. Pink, butterfly shaped wings fluttered absently behind her as she moved across the surface, a stray strand of her short, cherry red hair was brushed aside as her emerald eyes focused on a stack of papers. She was a tiny being, just over a few inches tall, though she possessed strength that defied her small stature; it was something of a shock to see an enormous stack of papers lifted by such minuscule hands.

Sona stiffened the moment she saw the familiar, a fairy of all things. It was extremely unusual for any of them to bond with devils. As beings widely recognized as the epitome of darkness, devils often evoked a strong sense of unease in fairies just with their mere presence, to say the least. Pacts between them were such a rare event, in fact, that the number of occurrences could be counted on one hand, and Sona knew of only one in recent memory to have accomplished it.

"Fiona." Sona called out, ignoring the surprised look from her queen and fighting to keep the nervousness out of her voice.

At the sound of her name, the fairy turned her attention away from the paperwork, a cheery smile spreading across her lips once she saw the speaker. "Oh, hello Sona."

"Please tell me he's not the one who was-"

The rest of her plea was lost amidst a thunderous crash. The doors of the student council room were blown off their hinges, splitting into pieces when they slammed onto the floor. Standing atop the fragments of a shattered doorway was a widely grinning, spiky haired blonde.

"Itttt's. . .me!" He drew out the first word in a dramatic manner, spreading his arms out in a grandiose fashion at the end. "Hooray!"

The cheer was echoed by Fiona, a beaming smile on her face while her wings fluttered excitedly.

Sona's peerage was not nearly as ecstatic. They scrambled out of their seats and hastily shifted to defensive stances at his grand entrance out of pure reflex. Saiji, the only male member of the student council stepped forward. He eyed the other blonde with thinly veiled distain, the burnt orange t-shirt, loose fitting pants, and black boots leading him to believe the intruder was some kind of academy delinquent pulling a prank.

"You can't be here. This room is for the student council only."

The newcomer made a show out of looking behind him before his eyes flicked to his right and he spoke in a stage whisper. "I think he's talking to you."

Too late did Saiji take note of the fairy now perched on the blonde's right shoulder. He paled at the realization that he had just insulted the envoy of a satan, hastily stepping back. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were the one to. . ." He trailed off, apologizing once more before falling silent.

The blonde eyed him in silence for a few seconds before he smiled and started to chuckle. Saiji nervously followed suit until a casual backhand- courtesy of their surprise guest- sent him crashing into the far wall.

"Apology accepted." The man cheerily remarked while two other council members cried out in alarm and rushed to the downed boy.

Sona pinched the bridge of her nose, shaking her head and barely biting back a groan. She closed her eyes, wishing the whole thing was just a crazy dream, and that she'd wake up to find that she'd fallen asleep during her chess match with Rias.

No such luck.

"Little Sona! Its been ages, how have you been?"

She deftly avoided the blonde's attempt to give her a hug, absently adjusting her glasses and trying to clamp down on the embarrassment she felt at his exuberant display. "Naruto, why are you here?"

He reluctantly dropped his arms, a frown on his face. "Sona, why do you always have to turn my smiles upside down? Can't I just stop by to say hi?"

It took a lot for Sona to keep her composure, a slight twitch in her brow the only visible sign of her struggle in containing her bubbling frustration. The only person more aggravating to deal with was her sister. "Naruto," She repeated, the definitive edge in her voice made it clear she didn't want to play his games.

He looked at her for a moment before the frown on his face settled, the amusement faded from his eyes, and his lazy posture abruptly straightened. Suddenly, he looked very much like the queen of a satan's peerage; stern, calculating, and brimming with suppressed power. Sona watched out of the corner of her eye as her own queen reeled back in shock watching what, for all intents and purposes, seemed to be a transformation. She couldn't blame Tsubaki for her reaction. Even she still felt unnerved by it and she had seen it more than once growing up; though seeing the gob smacked expression on Rias had given her some semblance of amusement.

"To the matter then." Naruto spoke in a voice completely devoid of the boisterous cheer that had laced each syllable just moments before, a contrast so sharp it sent shivers wracking down their spines. "Troubling news has reached me, concerning the presence of fallen angels here in Kuoh."

Sona unconsciously straightened when his cerulean eyes bore into her, clearly waiting for a response. "There is no cause for concern." She hurriedly assured. If her sister had even the slightest inkling that she was in danger, she would rush over and cause all kinds of havoc. Serafall might even decide it was too dangerous for her to be in the human world and that was the last thing she wanted. "The situation is under control."

Naruto raised a brow, looking very sceptical of her claim. "Are the fallen angels dead?"

"No." Sona quickly denied, narrowing her eyes in annoyance at the insinuation that she would do anything to jeopardize the fragile armistice between the factions.

"Have they been evicted?" Naruto asked, ignoring her reaction.

Again, she shook her head. She knew what he was getting at but he continued before she could utter a word.

"Well then, surely you must have come to some sort of arrangement with them."

When she denied it again, Naruto gave her a deadpan look. "Either the phrase 'under control' has gone through some major revisions since my last visit here, or these fallen are still a problem."

"They are being monitored!" Sona defended, a little heat beginning to seep into her voice. She was never fond of how he could make her feel like she was still a child. "Rias and I are dealing with the situation." She persisted, switching gears before Naruto could get another word in. "We don't need any help."

Naruto looked to Rias for the first time since he had entered. She looked startled at suddenly being the centre of attention, having watched the play by play between him and Sona with rapt interest. "Would you agree with that assessment Rias?"

Her eyes widened in surprise at being addressed by just her name, without any title shoved in. Even her brother's own peerage treated her like she was a princess and she had known most of them since she was a child. "Yes." She slowly replied, shaking herself out of her stupor. "Sona and I can handle things here."

Silence reigned in the wake of her declaration, Naruto's gaze shifting between her and Sona as if weighing their worth. Rias felt a little uncomfortable under the blonde's scrutiny and had to fight the urge to shuffle her feet like a scolded child.

"Okay then." Naruto said, the simple statement bringing an end to the overbearing silence.

Sona and Rias blinked at the abrupt statement, exchanging incredulous looks. Sona was the one who gave it voice. "Okay?"

"Okay." Naruto confirmed with a teasing grin as he stepped back.

Sona huffed, tinges of red on her cheeks when she realized that she'd just played into one of his little games. It seemed he had reverted to his more energetic personality. "You're really going back?" She asked carefully after a moment. She had to be sure.

Naruto grinned. "Certainly. I'll just return to the Underworld and tell Serafall that she'll have to get personally involved."

Sona went ramrod straight, stiffening as if she'd been zapped with an electric current. Her eyes widened and a feeling of dread settled in the pit of her stomach the moment the words started to sink in.

Her overbearing, fiercely protective sister coming to the one place where she had peace and solitude. . .

"Wait." Sona tried to object, but the shock hadn't quite settled and her voice sounded weak even to her own ears.

"She'll be so thrilled to know that her little sister desperately wants to spend time with her." A magic circle appeared beneath the blonde, the leviathan crest emblazoned in the centre. "I'll see you around Sona, Rias."

"WAIT!"

Everyone turned to look at her, the room falling silent save for the light hum of Naruto's transportation spell. Sona flushed when she realized she had broken into a yell. She took a moment to clear her throat, trying to regain her image.

"You can stay."

The magic circle disappeared beneath the older devil's feet, while he turned his inquisitive gaze to Sona and held a hand up to his ear "I'm sorry, what was that?"

"You can stay." Sona repeated a bit more firmly, her eyebrow twitching at the mischievous glint in his eyes.

Naruto let out a cheer, Fiona following suit as master and familiar exchanged high fives. "This is going to be so much fun! We can work on training and we can play games. . .and then we can eat ramen together." He spoke in rapid fire sentences, his exuberance mounting until the last part came out as an excitable squeak.

Sona couldn't help but palm her face, already regretting her decision. "I would welcome your instruction." She carefully started, "But please do not cause any problems while you are here Naruto. I have enough troubles without you adding to them."

He held his heart in a dramatic fashion, looking at her as though her very words had severely injured him. "Sona, why would you say something so cruel? I have never caused problems for anyone, ever."

Not even his familiar was buying that one. Fiona cast a sidelong look at her master, quirking a brow and looking a little thrown by his declaration. "What about that incident with the Chimaera you set loose in the Underworld barracks?"

Naruto just waved his hand dismissively. "That doesn't count. Sirzechs was the one who suggested I give the troops some instruction. Besides, that lazy prick Falbium needed a wake-up call."

"Or that time you knocked out a fallen angel and spray painted his wings white to see how he'd react."

"That was just a bit of fun!" Naruto defended, beginning to looking annoyed at the interrogation. "How was I supposed to know he'd try to go back to Heaven?"

"And then there was that time you were vacationing in Italy and thought it would be interesting to mess with-"

"The Vatican, yes!" Naruto interrupted, holding a hand to his forehead. "Fine, so maybe I've done a few-" He cut himself off then, narrowing his eyes at Fiona. "Whose familiar are you anyway?!"

"Yours of course." Fiona remarked, her innocent expression completely at odds with the mischievous gleam in her eyes.

Naruto huffed, purposely turning away from her and wondering if he had rubbed off on her a little too much. "Well, it doesn't feel like it."

Fiona just giggled at his antics, giving her master reassuring pats to the head that just made him blanch in response.

It was a rare sight to see a devil shot down by their own familiar. The fact that it was Naruto just made it all the more amusing to Sona. She sent a grateful smile to Fiona for curbing his exuberance, if only a little. She didn't know how much more of it she could take. "Naruto, I have business to take care of now. If that is all. .."

It was an obvious dismissal but Naruto only whined in response. "Ah, but I thought you said I could stay."

"Not. Here."

Deciding he had teased the girl enough for now, he just shrugged. "Well, I know when I'm not wanted. Come Fiona, let us away to the nearest ramen stand."

The moment the blonde and his fairy disappeared in a flash of light- a trick she still had yet to decipher- Sona all but collapsed into her chair. Encounters with Naruto always left her feeling drained. If it wasn't his mischievous, exuberant nature, then it was the unsettling shift in personality that could cow even Serafall; something she would not have believed possible had she not seen it first hand.

"That was. . .interesting." Rias was still looking at the spot where Naruto had suddenly departed. Her blue-green eyes shifted to Sona and an amused smile stretched across her lips. "I had not expected your sister's queen to be so. . ." She paused, searching for the right word.

"Vexing?" Sona helpfully supplied.

Her smile widened even as she shook her head. "Lively," she corrected. "Though I suppose it shouldn't be too surprising considering who his king is."

Sona groaned in agreement. Sometimes she wondered if her sister had based her behaviour off Naruto, they were awfully similar in that regard, though at least Naruto could act professionally every now and then. She shook her head after a moment and turned to a more serious note. "At least the fallen angels are no longer a concern."

Rias nodded. That was something they could both agree on and, while neither heiress would readily admit it- having wanted to firmly establish their own capabilities while in Kuoh- there was a part of them that was grateful Naruto had shown up. The current armistice between the three factions meant that neither Rias nor Sona had been able to directly confront the fallen angels the moment they had appeared, despite the fact that they had been deliberately skirting the borders of Gremory-Sitri territory. All they had really been able to do was give a stern warning, one Rias had since delivered after Issei had been targeted.

If the fallen pressed again, a devil response would require more direct methods and that was always a risky move. Rias and Sona had been meeting more frequently as of late to plan for the worst. If it became necessary to take matters into their own hands, it would have to be done carefully. If they went overboard in their response, it could be just the excuse the Grigori needed to start clamouring for blood. On the other hand, if their response was too light it would make devils look weak and could encourage further brazen acts, and not just from fallen angels.

Sona felt like a bit of weight had lifted from her shoulders with Naruto's presence in that regard. She couldn't help but wonder, however, what other troubles he would bring instead. Her sister's queen had always been something of a trouble magnet, after all.


	2. Orange, Ramen, and an Ultimatum

**Chapter II: The title is on the right**

 **[{Unholy Heading}]**

It had been lighting up like a beacon all over Kuoh. The sudden appearance of a new demonic signature had been impossible to miss, particularly when it slipped right onto the grounds of their own fledging territory. Raynare had been wary of dispatching forces into the city ever since Donhaseek had reported that it was the shared property of the Gremory and Sitri heiresses. It was a risk to send anyone else into a devil's territory, but it could prove even more costly to ignore the proximity of a completely new presence.

It was sound reasoning but Kalawarner just wished it didn't have to be her gallivanting around the metropolis. Not that Raynare's choice was all that surprising. Even if Dohnaseek could curb his bloodthirsty tendencies long enough to complete the mission, it was still a risk sending him after he had already been personally warned away by the Gremory heiress. Mittelt was a hot head, prone to temper tantrums that matched her child-like appearance- though hers typically consisted of barrages of light spears. And, with Raynare occupied with preparations for their impending guest, she was the only real choice.

Finding the source wasn't all that difficult, it was the actions that left her befuddled. She watched as the devil, a blonde-haired man, combed through the city, as though he were looking for something. That was enough to pique her interest. Was it possible there was something in this city that they had missed? It would certainly explain why the heiresses of two pillar families had made Kuoh Town their headquarters.

Thoughts of buried secrets and ancient relics had the fallen's excitement mounting as she shadowed the devil from above. Whatever it was he was after, there seemed to be a desperation in his search. There was a quickness in his step that spoke of a real need and Kalawarner couldn't help but smile. Discovering devil secrets would go a long way toward improving her standing in the Grigori.

She tensed in preparation the moment she heard the man give an excited yelp and saw him scramble into a. . .ramen stand. Her smile dipped for a moment until she shook her head, convincing herself the stupid devil was just hungry despite the fact that it was three in the afternoon. She waited for a few minutes, perking up when she heard a few shouts before the devil came back out looking less than pleased. He set back out again and Kalawarner scrambled to catch up.

He repeated the process in two more ramen eateries before he moved back to the first, a dark expression on his face. It was an intimidating look to witness even from afar, not that Kalawarner would ever admit as much out loud as she followed him once more. This time when he went inside, it was the employees who stepped out, though they looked oddly happy. The devil seemed to have bought the place out, if the stacks of money the humans were carrying was any indication. He did the same for the other two and Kalawarner felt her waning interest begin to rise one again.

It would seem she had misjudged the devil earlier and it wasn't the food he was interested in, but the land the buildings were on. If there was some sort of buried secret in Kuoh, the devil was pulling all the stops to get it. Two of the three buildings were demolished by the devil's magic and Kalawarner watched as he dropped to his knees at each of the empty lots and seemed to be perform some sort of ritual. She vaguely made out the word 'god', causing her to frown until her eyes lit up. It must have been meant to unleash whatever secret or artifact was buried on those land plots.

Kalawarner followed him back to the third and last ramen eatery, eagerly waiting to see what the devil would do next. Unlike the other two buildings, which were little more than small dining stands, the last was a rather spacious restaurant. Rather than simply destroy the building as he had with the other two however, the blonde actually went inside. She waited for a few minutes until he came back out, this time holding a large piece of folded cloth. He unfurled it and set it above the door and Kalawarner felt her hopes plummet.

Uzumaki Ramen, it's devilishly good.

She stood there gaping at the banner, sheer disbelief coursing though her. The idea that a devil had come all the way to the human world just to open a ramen stand was beyond ludicrous. More than that was the knowledge that all her preconceptions were for naught and that she had, in fact, just wasted an hour shadowing some fool who had only been after ramen this whole time.

The light spear materialized in her hands before she was even consciously aware of it. The yellowish glow intensified as it quickly expanded to the size of her wingspan in her growing fury. She would wipe both the devil and his stupid restaurant from existence. It wouldn't give her back the time she'd wasted, but at least she'd feel better knowing the one responsible was dead.

Kalawarner was so preoccupied with drawing on her power that she didn't even hear the whoosh of another's wings until it was too late.

"Eat knuckle, creature!"

She had just enough time to glance to her right, catching only a yellowish blur before a fist slammed into her cheek with enough force to send her plummeting to the ground with a thunderous crack, her light spear disappearing from her broken concentration. Kalawarner snapped her head around to see who had dared to lay a hand on her only for her eyes to widen at the sight of the very blonde she'd been about to murder now looming over her, a wicked gleam in his eye. A boot slammed down on her stomach before she could even think about recovering, knocking the wind out of her.

Naruto looked as though stepping on her was equivalent to trudging through a sewer. "How _disgusting_ , a mutated crow at the edge of my boot! I'll need to give it a thorough clean after, don't want the stench of corruption following me around."

Despite the position she was in, Kalawarner snarled at the insult, already preparing another light spear. He managed to avoid her quick thrust, though he was forced to step back in the attempt, allowing Kalawarner to move back to her feet.

She glowered at him, her wings emerging in a clear attempt at intimidation. She couldn't feel much in the way of power from him. In fact his presence was so minute she had to concentrate to confirm that he was actually there. Even then, it was little more than an echo. For such a weak devil, a simple scare tactic should have been all it really took to make the pathetic creature regret laying a hand on her.

"Wait, I know what you are!" Naruto suddenly shouted out with wide eyes, making Kalawarner smirk. "You're one of those creatures I've heard about, one of those winged women, aren't you? What are they called?" Naruto made a show of thinking it over before he snapped his snapped his fingers. "Oh yeah, herpes!"

Eyebrow twitching as much from the blatant mispronunciation as the misconception, Kalawarner felt her rage simmer. "Those would be _harpies_ you impudent wretch and how dare you even compare me to one of those filthy creatures!"

Another light spear was flung, only to be dodged again by the infuriating devil.

"Hey, careful now." Naruto spoke as though lecturing a child. "You could kill someone with those."

"That's the point!" Kalawarner hissed, letting loose with a volley of light spears.

Naruto made a show out of dodging her attacks, his wild manoeuvres more akin to a circus act than any real kind of evasion. The idea of a such a lowly devil not only avoiding her attacks but blatantly mocking her in the process was an insult that needed to be rectified. She abandoned her ranged attacks in favour of a melee, thrusting her spear forward to skewer the blonde menace.

Rather than pierce his heart like she had expected, however, her spear met nothing more than air. Her target had dashed backward, giving a shriek about 'killer crows' before he abruptly turned and bolted. Kalawarner could only blink in bewilderment, her eyes still trained to where the devil had been standing just a moment ago before she snarled and took to the skies, giving chase.

It was at the park where she finally found him. The sight of the pesky devil huddled over near a bench and panting as if he'd just run a marathon made her smirk.

"Is this were you would like to die?"

She enjoyed watching him tense at just the sound of her voice while he turned to regard her with nothing short of abject terror as she descended from the sky. If she'd been of a clearer head she would've questioned why he suddenly seemed so wary of a being he'd been mocking just moments before or why he looked tired when he had been effortlessly performing acrobatic feats without a drop of sweat. But Kalawarner was much too angry to consider anything beyond ending the blonde menace and restoring her pride.

The moment her feet touched the ground, Naruto stopped his cowering and grinned. It was such a sudden change, as though a switch had been flipped and it threw Kalawarner for a loop; a feeling that was compounded when the landscape seemed to shimmer. It was like her perceptions had shifted. One moment she was preparing to throw a spear and the next she was surrounded by a lay of wires fixed to the surrounding trees. Too late did she realize that she'd walked right into a trap.

A trip wire was snared and Kalawarner was quickly bound from neck to toe. She wiggled in her makeshift cocoon and tried to call upon her power, feeling a surge of panic when nothing happened.

"I wouldn't waste the effort, the wires have inhibited your magic."

Her furious gaze swept to lock eyes with the cheerful blonde standing over her. She had to concede his point, though, that her effort didn't seem to be getting her anywhere. She kept the conversation going, deciding that it would at least give her time to think of something else. "So you use illusions. Is that why you weren't fighting back?"

"Oh no, no no no." Naruto replied through a fit of chuckles. "I'm absolutely terrible at those."

Kalawarner craned her neck up to glare at him, firmly believing the devil to be mocking her again. She was, instead, struck by the appearance of a fairy perched on the blonde's shoulder waving at her cheerily. That would explain things, though it did nothing to help her already beaten sense of pride. Fairies were known for dabbling in magic that most shied away from, illusions and healing chief among them. It was the former art they were particularly adept at, only appearing to those they wished and able to obscure others through a glamour spell.

A bundle of feathers appeared in her vision and Kalawarner suddenly felt as though her eyelids were very heavy. She tried to resist, but without access to her own magic there was little she could do and she soon found herself drifting off.

The last thing she heard was the distant clatter of the devil's voice. "Fun as this all was, we have a restaurant to open. Fiona, fetch the crow and let's go."

Done in by a devil and his forest sprite. How was she ever going to live this down?

 **[{Unholy}]**

Fiona watched from her seat on the kitchen counter as her master set to work on fixing up the restaurant, feeling anxious. From the moment Naruto set out to explore Kuoh, she had known there was more to his excursion than just to look for ramen. The two had been together for more than three centuries. She knew the lay of his thoughts. So when he skirted the bounds of the abandoned church, it came as little surprise to the fairy when her master started casting spells. They weren't powerful enough to be considered threatening, but it would be clear enough to the fallen angels that someone new was in town.

It was clever, even if it was a bit of a gamble. Just because Naruto couldn't directly attack the fallen angels without provocation didn't mean he couldn't get his hands on one. It was, of course, banking on the idea that the fallen would consider it worth the risk to investigate, despite entering devil territory. But if their recent bouts of aggression were any indication, they would take the bait in an instant.

Her green eyes flicked down to the still slumbering, trussed up fallen angel near the stove. On that count at least, he had been spot on. Despite all of his work, however, Naruto seemed to have lost all interest in supernatural things the moment they got back to his new restaurant.

The paining of the walls to a deep blue seemed wholly out of place in a ramen eatery. Not that he'd stopped there. A giant poster of a sea serpent was plastered on the wall, along with a painting of a whirlpool on the opposite side. Fiona had considered it a blessing that he had retreated back to the kitchen instead of going further. But if his muttered thoughts were any indication, he had other crazy renovations in mind, and she decided that it was time to step in.

"Master?"

Naruto kept a careful eye on the simmering noodles. He had set up the dining area in record time, thanks to Fiona's help. The kitchen was the only area left that needed work. All that was left was to give it a quick trial run to make sure everything was up to snuff and then he could open the restaurant and start feeding the desperate masses of Kuoh. To think that these people had gotten by on inferior ramen for so long. It was an outrageous travesty of justice and he wouldn't stand for it!

"Master?" She tried again, a more insistent tone in her voice

Naruto finally turned his attention away from his cooking. "Yes Fiona, what is it?"

She wrung her hands in a clear show of unease. "Weren't you planning to do something about the fallen?"

He exhaled at her query, looking for all the world as though he were trying to recall something until he finally just blinked. ". . .the what?"

Fiona gave him an incredulous look. "The fallen angel at your feet that just woke up." She gave a pointed look toward the captive whose desperate wriggling had abruptly stopped with her announcement. "The reason we're here in the first place." She added with a bit of irritation seeping into her tone. To think he had gotten so completely side tracked.

"Right." Naruto said automatically as though he weren't really listening until her words finally seemed to sink in. "Yes!" He suddenly spoke up in a tone that sounded much more like agreement. "Yes, of course." He finally pulled his attention away from the simmering broth and turned to fully look at his familiar who was staring up at him from her position on the counter.

"What, did you think I had forgotten or something?"

Her deadpan expression said enough.

"Don't be ridiculous, Fiona." He added, an embarrassed laugh escaping him. "I would never forget something so important."

Despite his words he quickly rushed over to their bound captive before she could say anything, leaving her to tend to the ramen. He gave the fallen angel a subtle nudge with his toe. "Welcome back little bird. How are you feeling?"

Her deathly glare was a good indicator.

"You're quite the sour one, aren't you? If it'll make you feel better I'll take these off."

Kalawarner could only gape as the devil used a spell and shattered the cords. For a moment, she thought she had been ensnared by another of the fairy's illusions but the familiar thrum of power within her told her different. She was free. She couldn't believe the devil had given up such a clear advantage. He must have been planning something, not that Kalwarner was going to wait to see what it was.

In an instant, a conjured light spear appeared in her hand. She closed the distance in the blink of an eye, only for her foe to display a completely new level of speed and sidestep her attack. Caught off guard and completely exposed, she had no way to defend herself against the solid punch to her stomach that had her falling to her knees, gasping for breath. It should have been impossible for such a weak looking devil to possess such strength. It just made it all the more necessary for him to die. She made to conjure another spear, when cerulean eyes bore into her.

Kalawarner had always been more skilled than the rest of her cohort at sensing and what she felt was staggering. It was as if the devil had stopped suppressing his power. A crushing weight that had little to do with her injury slammed into her with the force of a freight train. The very air suddenly felt heavy, oppressive. More than that was the blonde's smile. There was something so inherently off about it that it made her skin crawl. Once more, her gathering power completely dispersed from her broken concentration and it was only then that his grip slackened.

"I trust you won't be trying to do that again."

She shook her head rapidly. That flare, however brief, was enough for her to get a sense of his power. It was overwhelmingly vast. Even if she had attacked him with the aid of her companions, it would have made no difference.

He released his hold of her then, a hand extended in its place. The blonde suddenly looked much more friendly, as if they were two strangers that had just bumped into each other on the street. She took it warily and he gently pulled her back to her feet.

"My name is Naruto, queen of Leviathan. Who are you?"

She said nothing for a moment, her amber eyes widening from a combination of shock and fear. The peerage piece of a satan?! However confident she was in her abilities, there was just no way she could match that level of strength. "K-Kalawarner." She finally managed to stutter out.

Naruto smiled and Kalawarner shivered at the fierce gleam in his eyes. "Why don't you take a seat? I think we have some things to discuss."

Despite the phrasing, it was clear it was anything but a question. Briefly, she wondered if she could flee fast enough, but something about him made her think he was just waiting for her to try. So, unable to fight and unwilling to chance a very risky escape, Kalawarner had no choice but to follow the blonde's lead.

Fiona flew out of the kitchen to perch on her master's shoulder once the two had taken their seats in the dining area. "Well at least you've taken care of your unwanted shadow."

Naruto grinned. "Indeed, it took them long enough to send someone."

Kalawarner chose to ignore the fact that they were speaking about her as if she wasn't even there. "You. . .wanted us to come after you?"

"Well, of course. As much as I wanted to storm the church and murder you all for putting Sona in harm's way, there's a certain protocol to follow these days. Ya know, cease fire agreement and all that." Naruto let out an almost wistful sounding sigh. "Say what you will about the Great War, at least back then we could kill each other without all the red tape."

The way he just so casually mentioned their deaths was more than a little unsettling. It was as if he were discussing the weather. That feeling was compounded when he turned toward his familiar, abruptly changing the topic to ask if the ramen was ready.

Fiona shook her head, wondering about her master's priorities. "It should be by now."

"Well, hurrah!" Naruto exclaimed gleefully, about to ask Fiona to go get it before his eyes shifted to Kalawarner. "Would you like some too?"

"I prefer to eat real food, thank you."

Fiona went rigid the moment the words left the fallen angel's lips, her gaze nervously shifting toward Naruto.

Kalawarner looked completely perturbed by the fairy's reaction, but it was her master that set the fallen's pulse racing. There was a sudden chill to the room, as if one of the fabled reapers had stepped into the restaurant. A shadow seemed to fall over his face as he stared at her and spoke in a voice that had her adrenaline kicking in.

"You don't think ramen is real food?"

She opened her mouth to say something, anything, to convince the monster in front of her that she didn't mean it but no sound came out. The power he was exerting was far stronger than even the brief flare he'd given earlier. The unassuming devil suddenly seemed to be so much like his moniker that she couldn't even breathe, much less speak.

"Naruto!" Fiona frantically cried, giving his shoulder a viscous shake to try to snap him out of it. "She didn't mean it! Remember, she's a former angel, she doesn't know any better!"

To the relief of both fairy and fallen that seemed to be enough to get Naruto to calm down. The wild spike of power abruptly settled and the hard glint in his eyes disappeared. "Of course, you're right Fiona." Naruto let out a breath. "Of course, of course, of course, of course, of course." He repeated the words over and over, his voice sounding lighter and lighter until he was back to his cheerful self.

"Fiona, this poor fallen is in desperate need of enlightenment, Get her some ramen immediately, make it miso with extra pork slices."

The fairy nodded and flew back toward the kitchen. She let out a breath the moment she was gone, an involuntary shudder coursing through her at the same time. It always felt like navigating a verbal minefield whenever someone mentioned ramen in a less than favourable light. The one instance where she, herself, had tried to curb Naruto's obsession with ramen by gently suggesting that there were other foods just as good didn't exactly go well.

It had led to a stony faced Naruto giving her a stern lecture about the wonders of ramen, as well as a history lesson on the food in question that he had memorized by heart. It was an experience she was in no way keen to relive and why she had learned to be very tolerant of her master's eccentric desire for the noodle broth.

No sooner had Fiona returned with two bowls of miso ramen then Naruto let out an excited whoop and immediately dug in. Kalawarner was far more reserved in her appraisal, looking down at the broth with an almost wary expression, as though she thought the food itself was a poisonous concoction. The sound of chopsticks hitting the table had her eyes flicking up to see that the blonde was already finished. He met her gaze, that eerie smile on his lips.

"Well, aren't you going to at least try it?"

The chopsticks were in her hands before she was even aware of it, scooping up a bunch of noodles all but shoving it into her mouth. The taste was surprisingly good, far better than she had expected. She ate the rest with no sign of her previous hesitation, her eyes alight with joy.

"Not as bad as you were expecting, is it?"

Kalawarner shook her head as a nervous smile spread across her lips, she was wary of upsetting the devil any further. "It's quite good actually."

Naruto grinned. Another successful convert to the glories of ramen. "Well, now that you're being fed we can get to the real reason I dragged you here. What exactly are you fallen angels doing here in Kuoh? I can't imagine Azazel sent you so close to devil territory for sight-seeing."

There was a minuscule tensing in her jaw at the mention of the Grigori leader, something Naruto took note of. "Though, from what I've heard, he also neglected to mention that little detail."

Kalawarner bit her lip, considering her response carefully. She was no longer fooled by the blonde's cheerful demeanour. He may have spoken as though they were two old friends catching up, but now that she was really paying attention she could see that his muscles were coiled, ready to strike. It was apparent he wanted answers one way or another. "We've been sent here to monitor a sacred gear user."

Naruto hummed in response. He already knew that of course. Sona may have been under the impression that neither her parents nor her sister were in any way aware of the activities in Kuoh, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Serafall would never let her cherished sibling go to the human world without taking at least some precautions. If that meant spying on her own sister than she would do it in a heartbeat.

So he was aware of Rias' new peerage member, Issei Hyoudo, and that the fallen angels had been paying particular attention to him. What he still didn't know was why the Grigori members were hanging around.

Whatever the parameters of their mission, it had failed the moment Issei had been reincarnated as a devil under the Gremory house. Sticking around after only served to raise tensions. What was strange was that Azazel knew that and, as foolish as the former seraph could be, it was highly unlikely he would take actions to start another war, particularly when he seemed to have grown fond of the peaceful lull.

That meant that either the fallen angels had decided to separate from the Grigori entirely- unlikely given the angelic nature for order and structure- or they were following someone else's orders.

"But the boy's a devil now, which makes us responsible for him. So why are you all still here?" Naruto didn't even bother letting Kalawarner respond, thinking out loud more than anything. "You'd have to be working for someone else, someone high up in the Grigori. Kokabiel, for example."

Kalawarner just stared, golden eyes widening. She swallowed nervously, her pulse racing as her hands clenched. This devil knew far more than he should and her hand clenched reflexively, aching to conjure a light spear. Ordinarily, she would've executed him on the spot, but if their earlier bout had showed her anything it was that she was hopelessly outclassed.

All she could really do was talk, though it took an effort for her just to find her voice. "How d-did you know?"

Naruto shrugged. "Given your reaction to Azazel's name, you're not particularly fond of him. Shemizial would never start a war with devils- seeing as how he's married to one- and Baraquiel's too much of a stiff to go against his friends, so that really leaves only one option."

Naruto gave her only a moment to process that before he pressed. "I imagine disobeying orders isn't a well regarded practise in the Grigori. That kind of makes you a rogue, doesn't it?"

She snapped her head to him, the colour draining from her face and real fear beginning to settle in. If there was one thing that had been unanimously agreed upon by the three factions in the armistice, it was the search and destroy of any and all rouge elements. Fallen angels had free reign to eliminate any stray devils they encountered and vice versa; the same was true of angels as well, though none of them had been seen outside heaven in some time. It had become an easy way of getting rid of their unwanted elements without violating each other's borders.

While obeying orders from another superior was hardly a treasonous affair, the fact that they had gone against their faction leader made things tenuous at best. As forgiving as Azazel could be, he was still an angelic commander and would not hesitate to discipline angels that stepped out of line. In their case, actively subverting the orders of a superior was considered a gross offence, typically punishable with death.

This wasn't good. Kalawarner suddenly felt small, trapped in a room with a truly monstrous devil. For the first time in as long as she could remember, she was terrified. "Are you going to tell Azazel?"

The blonde lost any semblance of cheer in his expression, fixing her with a steely gaze that had her tensing instinctively. "No, little crow. I'm giving you twenty-four hours to vacate Kuoh Town before I lay you all to waste. Then, if Azazel raises a fuss over it, I will tell of how you betrayed him"

Kalawarner managed to muster up enough courage to challenge him. "H-he won't believe you."

"Perhaps not at first," Naruto conceded with a shrug, "but the events speak for themselves and he will eventually arrive at the truth. Now, return to your cohort, deliver my message, and pray you never have to see me again."

She didn't need to be told twice, warily manoeuvring out of her seat and keeping the blonde in her sights for several moments before she turned and bolted out the door.

"Is it wise to let her go?" Fiona piped up the moment Kalawarner disappeared. "It may have been better to keep her as a hostage."

Naruto snorted as he grabbed hold of the ramen Kalawarner had so rudely left behind. "You're assuming they value each other as something approximating friends, traits not exactly common among fallen angels."

"Or devils." Fiona added with a teasing lift to her voice. "But there are still exceptions."

He huffed in acknowledgment and slurped up a mouthful of noodles. "Point," He conceded. "Regardless, I wouldn't have the grounds to keep her here. Even if I did I just want them gone." He slurped up the rest of the ramen and pushed the empty bowl aside. "Follow her for me please. See what they do."

Fiona cast him a side long look "You don't actually expect them to leave, do you?"

Naruto's thoughts on the matter would remain his own, however, as he dropped his serious look and flashed her a toothy grin. "No, I expect them to _fall_."

Fiona only blinked as her master waggled his eyebrows as if he had just made the most hilarious joke. She felt embarrassed on his behalf and patted his head on her way out of the restaurant, smirking at his indignant cry.

 **[{Unholy}]**

It was bigger than Raynare had expected. Whenever she imagined it at all, she had always pictured something that was at least easier to handle. Not to say the size was a real detriment but small and compact would have been preferable to the monstrosity that had been unleashed in the middle of the church.

"It is kind of garish, isn't it?"

Mittelt had unceremoniously plopped herself down on one of the few pews left in the church. Her eyes roamed over the machine, her legs kicking out lazily while she suckled on a lolipop.

Raynare rolled her eyes at Mittelt's penchant for childish behaviour. Still, she did have a point, it did clash with a church otherwise devoid of religious idols. The fact that it was shaped like a giant cross seemed ironic given its purpose and it was part of the reason Raynare had set it up right in the middle. A silent fuck you to her wayward father.

"What's the verdict then?"

Dohnaseek let out a contemplative hum as he evaluated the machine. It was a complete reverse to see the angel with a scholarly side. Give his usual bloodthirsty tendencies, it was easy to forget that he had actually never been created to fight. He had served as a collector of knowledge instead, working underneath the seraph, Raziel. The Great War had brought many changes to heaven however, including the deployment of all angels regardless of positions. For an angel, who was essentially a librarian, to suddenly be thrust onto the battlefield, it was no wonder he'd come out different.

"It needs time to charge." Dohnaseek finally spoke after his inspection.

Raynare clicked her tongue, just barely keeping her annoyance in check. "How long?"

"There's a full moon in two days, that would be the ideal time."

Magic was always at a zenith during the lunar peak and for a machine that was a creation of both sorcery and technology it was sound reasoning. From what Dohnaseek had discerned, a ritual would be needed to power the machinery, and there was no better time to perform one than during a focal point of magic. Still, it did nothing to quell Raynare's growing impatience. After weeks of planning, the goal she'd been working for was close at hand.

"Can't it be done any quicker?"

Dohnaseek shot her a look. "Not if you want this to be done properly, and may I remind you we only have one of these so we can't exactly afford to screw this up. Unless you would like to explain to Kokabiel why things didn't work out."

Raynare had to fight the urge to shiver at the idea of one of the cadre-class being personally upset with her, especially given Kokabiel's less than forgiving nature.

"Just get it done." She snapped back, inwardly pleased with how he lowered his head and hastened back to his task.

She was the strongest among the four of them and never hesitated to remind either when it was needed. It was something she had certainly earned after all her struggles, first as an angel and then as a fallen.

The doors of the church were thrown open, breaking Raynare from her musing as Kalawarner burst in. Her smile dipped when she saw the most reliable of her group looking absolutely frantic.

"Raynare, there's a problem!"

She listened to the hurried explanation with mounting dread. A peerage piece of a satan in Kuoh? She had to fight back the urge to scream, this couldn't have come at a worse time. The devil's ultimatum of twenty-four hours meant that Dohnaseek's plan was no longer viable. The sacred gear from the nun would have to be extracted, tonight.

She made her intention clear and Kalawarner looked ready to object, but it was Dohnaseek who spoke up first. "Perhaps we should acquiesce to his demands, then we can regroup and find another to-"

Raynare snapped her head towards him, violet eyes narrowed to slits. "No! We haven't come this far just to be dictated terms by a devil."

Kalawarner looked completely harrowed by her declaration. "But Raynare, he's-"

"Nothing we haven't faced before."

Truth be told Raynare did feel it was significant risk, but delaying the extraction could prove to be even more so. This was their chance to balance the playing field. The devils already had their Evil Pieces to turn other beings into their likeness. It was particularly useful for acquiring sacred gears, though it still left the human container in possession of it. It was a such a waste, sacred gears had been squandered on humanity. With the extractor, fallen angels would be able to rip the artifacts right out of the humans and bestow it on themselves, cutting out the middle man.

Raynare turned her attention back to Dohnaseek. "Is there any way to have the extractor ready for tonight?"

His incredulous gape was squashed beneath Raynare's glower and he instead looked contemplative, rubbing his chin in thought. "It might be possible to bypass the ritual," Dohnaseek began slowly, "if you channel your own power into it. It would not be without risk though," he cautioned at Raynare's triumphant look. "The ritual is designed to empower it slowly for a reason. Turning it on so quickly could make the matrix unstable, and that might make it collapse in the middle of the procedure."

Raynare nodded at his warning but it was clear to him that she wasn't overly concerned. "Then there's no need to wait. Mittelt, go get the nun."

She nodded, jumping off the pew and skipping out of the room.

"This is not a good idea." Kalawarner took the chance to speak, lowering her voice so Dohnaseek couldn't hear. "Even from the brief glimpse I could catch of the devil's abilities. . ." She trailed off for a moment, shivering at the memory of his cold eyes. "He has a great deal of power Raynare, more than I've ever felt in a single person before."

Raynare looked at her in surprise, knowing that Kalawarner had been in the presence of some of the Grigor's cadre-class angels. For a moment, she looked decidedly nervous and worried her lip.

But when her eyes fell to the extractor, she seemed to regain her confidence and all but dismissed Kalwarner's concerns. Not even the threat of a powerful devil would stop her when she was this close. Her earlier fears gave way to a shiver of excitement. This was it, the moment she had been striving towards since her fall, the culmination of more power. It was what had led to her less than honourable dismissal from heaven in the first place. She always had a desire to stand out from the rank and file and now she had the means to reach that lofty perch.

She had always felt like she'd been shirked ever since her creation. During the height of the Great War she had been just another of a thousand angels god had created to replenish the ranks. Given the barest of training before being pressed into service, it was as if their own father viewed them as little more than cannon fodder. Her siblings had grown to accept their station, but Raynare never had. It was as if she was a seraphim trapped in a low-class angel's body.

It just felt wrong.

Twilight healing would change things for her. She would be the first fallen angel to be empowered by a sacred gear, an example for her own kin, someone they could look up to. She would finally be more than just another angel.

The clacking of boots alerted the three to Mittelt's return and it was clear right away that something was wrong. It was rare to see her acting outside of her childish behaviour and her measured steps were anything but. She dragged a pair of exorcists behind her, pained whimpers escaping them as she threw them to the floor.

Raynare eyed them with thinly veiled disdain. She had never cared for the Grigori's inclusion of the church's dregs into their ranks. They could make do just fine without relying on such worthless trash. Unfortunately, it was an opinion that few shared. Even Kokabiel, for all his talk of how fallen angels should be able to stand alone, had no qualms with making use of strays- which was the reason why she had to contend with more than a dozen of them in the church.

"Why have you deposited these. . .things at my feet? Where is the girl?"

"Gone." Mittelt replied simply. There was a sharp edge to her blue eyes as she stared at the exorcists, a keen reminder of why the vengeful angel had fallen in the first place. "These shits allowed her to slip out of fucking grasp."

A dark chuckle was heard from Dohnaseek as he paused in his work to look at the cowering pair. "A nun slipped past them. That is sad."

"Oh, she didn't sneak past anyone." Mittelt corrected with a furious snarl. "Apparently, she just _asked_ if she could go outside for some fresh air."

For her part, Raynare was beyond furious. These simple minded fools had allowed the very prize that had taken weeks of tracking to just slip out of their base. Sacred gear users were a rarity and ones without ties to any of the factions was even more so. Since the experiment didn't have Azazel's approval they couldn't go through any of the holders in the Grigor's service- even if they wanted there were so few that their absence would immediately draw notice. The chance of coming across another in a situation similar to Asia was so close to zero it wasn't even worth thinking about.

"You let her escape?"

One of the exorcists whimpered at the deathly cold look in Raynare's eyes. "S-she just seemed like she needed a break. I didn't think-"

The rest of his statement ended in a cry when Raynare brought her foot crashing down on his ribs. "Clearly." She hissed, sparing the wheezing man only the barest glance before looking back at Mittelt.

"How long has she been gone?"

"A couple of hours at least."

Her hands clenched, her aura flickering in the wake of her smothering rage. Asia could be anywhere by now and she had no idea where to even start looking. Worse, she would have to go back into devil territory to search, an act which could very well draw the attention of Leviathan's queen. For a moment, she toyed with the idea of scrapping the entire project, but only for a moment. She had come too far, sacrificed too much just to call it quits now, especially when she was so close.

"I'm going into the city to find her." She announced on her way out the church.

"What of the exorcists?"

Raynare didn't even pause. "What exorcists?"

The message was clear as crystal to Mittelt. A sinister smile stretched across her lips as a light spear materialized in her hand.

"Wait!" One of them pleaded, frantic eyes looking between Raynare and Mittelt. "Lady Raynare please, we were just-"

His plea was lost when the spear was brought down, smiting him in an instant and forever ridding the world of his existence. His partner barely had time to scream in horror before he met the same fate.

Kalawarner paid it no heed, her eyes glued, instead, to Raynare's departing form. She had hoped the others would see reason when she delivered the news of a powerful devil nearby, but while Dohnaseek may have been willing to at least consider it, Raynare had simply brushed it off entirely. If anything, she had seemed more determined to go through with the ritual. It wasn't all that surprising to her though. None of them had felt his terrifying aura or caught the barest glimpse of the crushing power he had at his command.

The debacle with the nun couldn't have come at a worse time. With Raynare brazenly moving back into devil territory, the chances of being discovered was all but certain. She could only hope that the devil wouldn't find out until they were ready to leave.

Too preoccupied, none of the fallen angels sensed the glimmer of magic from a departing fairy.

 **[{Unholy}]**

It was pushing into the evening by the time Rias and her peerage made it back to the old school house. She let them take a break, giving Issei only twenty minutes before putting him back to work on contract duty. She knew she being hard on him, but it was the quickest way for new devils to increase their strength and she needed him to do it as fast as possible, and not just for his benefit. Rias slipped into the back room after he left, making use of the shower. She sighed in bliss and closed her eyes the moment the warm water soaked her body. Taking a hot shower was one of her guilty pleasures and she always liked to take a few throughout the day.

Dealing with the stray devil Vizer had taken longer than it should have since Rias had opted to turn it into something of an impromptu lecture for Issei's benefit. It was far more heavy handed than her usual methods, but she felt it necessary given his situation. Of all her peerage members, Issei's inclusion meant that he was not only new to devil affairs but the superanatural itself, so Rias felt it more prudent to be a bit more careful during his integration.

That wasn't to say she was worried about him becoming a stray, she just didn't want him to feel overwhelmed. There was far more to the supernatural world than just the three factions after all. Rias, herself, had barely caught a glimpse of its true scope and she had been born into it. Issei may not come away with everything the supernatural had to offer but he at least knew the basics of being a devil. He understood the intricacies of a peerage, how the individual pieces worked, and he also knew the cost of betrayal- from an image that wouldn't fade any time soon.

Rias turned the shower off, taking a few minutes to dry off and redress before moving back into the clubroom itself. Kiba was cleaning the blade he had used on Vizeer, Koneko was munching on some sweets, and Akeno was serving tea. Rias sat down on her chair, frowning slightly when it felt a bit less softer than she remembered. She wiggled around until she felt a bit more comfortable, extending a hand to the cup of tea her queen had already served.

"Isn't this a bit sudden?"

The voice sounding directly in her ear had her bolting out of the chair in an instant. A startled scream slipped past her lips as she whirled around, her power of destruction flaring on reflex. Her peerage was already on alert from her outburst, only to recoil at the sight of a laughing blonde. Rias recognized the man once her adrenaline faded, and her power dissipated.

"Naruto?"

He shot her a wink, a grin stretching across his lips as he put his feet up on her desk. "If you wanted to sit on my lap sweetheart, all you had to do was ask."

Rias's face turned as red as her hair. "I-you-it wasn't like-" She sputtered out denials until she simply stomped her foot and glared, pointing at him. "What are you even doing here?!"

It took everything he had not to just laugh uproariously at the sight of the heiress completely losing her composure. "So _excited_ ," Naruto cooed with a wicked smirk, "and I haven't even done anything yet."

Rias' blush seemed to darken another shade. She stood agape, staring at him until she let out a frustrated growl eerily reminiscent of Sona.

"Naruto!"

His chuckling didn't help matters, her anger warring with embarrassment. She opened her mouth to say something, if only to try to restore her battered sense of pride, when an amused giggle turned her attention toward her smiling queen.

"Aren't you going to introduce us to your interesting friend, President?"

Rias couldn't believe she had forgotten about her own peerage. She took a moment to try to regain her composure; she was beginning to understand why Sona had been so frustrated earlier. Watching it was one thing, it was quite another to experience it herself.

"This is Naruto-" She paused, her eyes flicking toward the blonde newcomer. She didn't actually know his last name.

"Uzumaki," He supplied helpfully.

She spared him a thankful nod. "He's the queen of Lady Levaithan and he's here to look after both Sona's group and ourselves."

Her peerage straightened abruptly, their previous looks of amusement and curiosity shifting to nervousness and shock at the realization that they were in the presence of a very senior devil.

Rias began from left to right. "Naruto this is my queen, Akeno. Kiba is my knight and Koneko, my rook."

"Pleased to meet you, Master Naruto." Akeno spoke with a bow, Kiba and Koneko following her lead.

He waved them off almost immediately as he moved back to his feet. "No need to shove a title in there, Naruto will do just fine. Although," he added with a teasing smirk as he stepped in front of Akeno, "you can still call me master, if you _really_ want to."

"We'd have to play a game first to make sure you deserve that title, Na-ru-to." Akeno fired back with a seductive smile, though there was a hint of pink on her cheeks.

"I think I'm going to like you," Naruto spoke through a fit of chuckles. He moved closer then, a more serious air around him as he scrutinized her. There was an intensity to his gaze that had Akeno's teasing response sticking in her throat and made her feel as though she were being judged. "And there's something else about you. I can't quite put a finger on it."

Akeno stiffened at the implication of her rather unique status. Did he know? It wasn't like the rest of the peerage in the clubroom weren't aware, but that didn't mean she wanted it spoken aloud. She sent a pleading look to Rias, hoping for a distraction.

A loud snap sounded before Rias could even make the attempt as Naruto clicked his fingers in realization. He threw everyone's preconceptions out the window, however, and pointed at her head. "I know, it's your hair tie."

Reflexively, a hand moved up to touch the cloth keeping her raven hair in a ponytail. "My ribbon?"

"Of course! Anyone who knows about the divine connection of orange must be awesome." He looked around as though about to divulge some great secret, despite the fact that he continued to speak normally. "It's in the Naruto Devil Handbook."

Akeno blinked, staring at him for a moment until she broke into a laugh. It even took Rias by surprise since it wasn't one with her usual teasing lifts but a genuine fit of amusement that had her violet eyes crinkling. "Could I get a copy of this handbook of yours?"

"Only if you can pry it off Serafall's hands." Naruto returned with a grin. He'd only ever made two copies for the only two devils he'd ever cared for. Whether Sona still had hers, however, was up for debate.

He stood in front of Kiba next, the knight bowing to him as if on reflex. He had only to glance at him to catch the familiar resonance he had long associated with heaven. "You hold a sacred gear."

It wasn't a question, but the boy nodded regardless. "Sword birth."

Naruto had heard of it, a sacred gear that allowed the user to create blades from their own imagination. If he could will it, he could forge it. That made it somewhat limited in its focus, but the versatility of its application was something the more powerful sacred gears just didn't have.

"You must be quite the knight then."

Kiba seemed to preen under the praise and Naruto moved on to the last.

Koneko straightened at his appraoch, the two staring at each other, unblinking. The silence stretched on for several seconds, cerulean locking with golden orbs until Naruto broke it with a smile and patted her head. "You're cute."

Having expected him to make another keen observation, the others were a little thrown by his casual statement. Koneko, herself, looked torn between embarrassment and annoyance. She had been expecting some kind of assessment about her own strength, not her looks.

"I don't see that pawn of yours Rias, is he not here?" Naruto announced as he took a step back.

"He's out delivering fliers."

It was bit disappointing that he couldn't assess the piece both devils and fallen angels seemed so interested in. Still, from what he was able to gleam Rias had assembled quite the group and he told her as much.

A proud smile appeared on Rias' face as she looked at her servants. "Thank you."

Even with just the three in front of him, Rias had quite the selection. They were already quite strong for such young devils and had the potential to grow much stronger still. He could easily work with that, though there was the question of what to do with Akeno and Koneko.

It was clear from Akeno's reaction that she wasn't exactly comfortable with her fallen angel side. While it could have been simply attributed to the fear of how others would react- fallen angels weren't exactly well regarded by devils- her use of illusion magic told a different story. It made her fallen side masked and muted to the point that she wouldn't be able to make use of it at all. If it weren't for his own sensory ability Naruto wouldn't have sensed that side of hers at all, and would have just assumed the illusion served a more vain purpose.

As for Koneko, well the name alone was a clue that something wasn't right. Naruto vaguely recalled an incident about a captive nekoshou that Sirzechs had to get involved in. He'd never much cared for any matters outside Serafall's jurisdiction, so he hadn't looked too much into it. From what he could recall though, the girl had been slated for execution, many of the pillar families vying for her head. It was why he tended to give a wide berth to any internal matters of the Underworld. For all the power and influence wielded among the pillars, they were like so many baying sheep, each echoing cries of the others.

The fact that her youkai traits were hidden was also something of an oddity. It took a great deal of concentration to maintain from what he knew, which was why they typically only did it when it they wished to remain hidden. The fact that she was doing it all the time, much like Akeno with her illusion, was not a good sign.

Neither of two would be able to grow if they couldn't learn to accept themselves. And they would very much need to grow if they were to stand against a Phenex.

The sudden glow from a small magic circle over his shoulder pulled him from his thoughts. Fiona used the familiar pact to appear directly at her master's side.

"Master I have-" She cut herself off when she noticed the other devils in the room and continued in a quieter manner. "Those guests of ours have opted to stay."

Naruto's expression turned stormy at his familiar's hurried explanation of the fallen's real plans. "If you'll excuse me Rias," He suddenly announced in a voice that sent shivers down her spine. "It appears that I have an errant flock to educate."

She'd thought that she'd seen the extent of his more intimidating side back at the student council room, but this was something else entirely. He wasn't even releasing any of his power. There was just something so inherently off about that deceptively calm tone that it had her adrenaline kicking in. It was all she could do to voice her goodbye before he disappeared in a flash of light.

 **[{Unholy}]**

Issei had known it was a risk long before he'd stormed inside. He knew that changing into a fallen angel base would be unlikely to endear them to devils. There would be consequences, just as assuredly as he was unlikely to make it out alive, but none of that mattered to him. Asia needed his help.

The last thing he had expected was to run into the nun while handing out more of the devil fliers. The president had told him that it was dangerous for the two of them to be friendly when he had described their first encounter to her. She had told him that while the three factions weren't at war, they were far from being friends and that he couldn't afford to see the nun. He had grudgingly accepted her conditions and had agreed not to seek her out, but when she had been standing right in front of him, greeting him with a happy smile, everything just came pouring out. He told her that he was a devil, that his king had told him they couldn't see each other, and that he didn't care about either and hoped she felt the same.

Asia had been shocked to say the least, not that he blamed her. Watching her recoil from him though, even if only out of reflex, tore him up inside. To his eternal relief, she had come around fairly quickly. She even went so far as to let him know that she thought he was a good person, devil or not.

He had shown her around town. Rias would undoubtedly be displeased that he had skipped on flier duty, but she already seemed disappointed with him in that regard and he could always make it up to her later. He had taken Asia out for a late dinner and they had gone on a walk through a park. But they weren't alone, Raynare had followed the nun.

"Oh Asia, dating my ex. Shame on you."

Thinking about that cruel smile and derisive laugh made his fists clench. Issei had hoped his sacred gear would give him an edge, like it did against the trenchcoat wearing fallen angel he had met earlier. Raynare had been less then impressed , laughing in his face and gleefully informing him that its sole function was to double the user's power. He had attacked regardless, only to be swatted and picked full of holes that burned something fierce.

Asia had rushed over to heal him and Raynare had presented her offer. If Asia surrendered than she would spare Issei, otherwise she had promised to smite him from existence. Despite Issei's heated protests to the contrary, Asia had agreed and she had been whisked away before he could stand back on his feet.

Issei had toyed with the idea of pleading for Rias' help, but had ultimately decided against it. She had made it abundantly clear during their last conversation that she couldn't afford to get involved. No, he was on his own this time.

A group of humans were the only ones barring access to the church and he ploughed right through, his sacred gear unleashing a wave of power that sent them hurtling backward. Issei burst through the doors, immediately fixating on the sight of Asia chained to the crucifix in the middle of the room. Her pained cries tore at his heart as a green energy seemed to be siphoned from her body.

"Asia!"

If his unceremonious entrance hadn't grabbed the attention of the occupants, his yell certainly did. He hesitated briefly at the sight of four fallen angels, he had only been expecting the two he had already met.

While the trench coat man dismissed him almost immediately, Raynare cackled at the sight. "Oh Issei, come to watch her die? That's so sweet!"

Issei growled, his eyes almost burning in fury. "Raynare!" He yelled, stepping forward to do whatever it took to stop the ritual.

Only two of the fallen actually moved to stop him and he went straight for the blue haired woman, automatically believing her to be the greater threat. That proved to be a mistake.

The diminutive fallen angel he had so casually dismissed was on him before he was even halfway to his intended target, sending a light spear through his right hamstring. It was a shock, more than anything at first, to see a jagged protrusion from his leg. An intense burning quickly followed, as though a vat of corrosive chemicals had been dumped into the wound. His leg gave and he dropped to his knees, unable to hold back a scream.

"And just when I was starting to get bored." The devious voice sounded so out of place coming from a little girl. She moved in front of him, her features turning from cute to something truly grotesque as the sickening smile spread across her lips. "The fact that you're a devil makes this so much better."

She picked him up in a surprising display of strength and hurled him against the wall. Two more light spears were hurtled after him, skewering through his shoulder blades and eliciting another cry of pain as he was pinned to the wall.

"Don't worry little devil, you and Mittelt will have so much fun."

Issei watched through bleary eyes as Asia's cries reached a crescendo. The green glow had intensified around her chest and seemed to be glowing brighter with each passing moment.

"Let her go!" He bellowed, thrashing against his makeshift bonds and trying to forcibly rip himself loose. But they wouldn't even budge, and all his efforts wound up doing was aggravating his already burning wounds.

A sharp scream resonated through the church and Issei watched with mounting dread as two rings were finally siphoned from Asia's flailing form. The moment they left, she went very stiff, as though she had been shocked with an electric current. She went limp and Issei watched her head dip. She didn't move again.

"Asia," He whispered, his voice cracking, hope against hope that she would stir. He felt a cold grip on his heart when she remained still.

"Ah, there it is." Raynare's joyful gasp drew Issei's attention over to the woman. She reached up slowly, taking hold of Asia's sacred gear with an almost reverent care. "Twilight Healing."

It phased into her body and Raynare closed her eyes in bliss at the surge of power she could feel. She felt dizzy with euphoria at the knowledge that she had actually pulled it off. Everything she'd ever wanted suddenly seemed within her grasp. She couldn't help but laugh.

"Shut up!" Issei screamed, his eyes narrowed to slits and feeling a rage he'd never imagined possible. "How could you do that to her?!"

He didn't know that his sacred gear was glowing brighter and brighter, its form shifting. He didn't notice that the three other fallen angels suddenly looked more alert, or that the light spears pinning him to the wall had shattered into pieces. All he could see was Raynare's annoyed expression and his insatiable need to make her pay.

He barely managed more than a few steps though, before a light spear lanced through his left side. He spun with the impact, gritting his teeth and punching the next one intended for his leg. Raynare looked completely thrown that he had actually managed to negate her attack. She adapted quickly though, conjuring three times as many in the blink of an eye and sending them rocketing forward. Issei managed to dodge one and punch the other, but the last found its mark and brought him crashing to the floor.

Even then, jabbed with spears, Issei still tried to move forward. The surge of strength he had been relying on had faded, the blind fury ebbing with it enough that he wasn't moving toward Raynare, but Asia. He managed to move a few inches before the small girl from earlier was back, jamming a spear in his leg to keep him locked in place once more.

"You're quite the lively one, aren't you?" Mittelt spoke with a laugh as he continued to struggle forward.

It couldn't end like this! He had to save Asia!

In his desperation, Issei turned to the only thing he could think of, prayer. _You have to help her!_ The backlash was immediate, an intense pain that had him gritting his teeth, feeling like a spike was being hammered into his skull. _She's one of yours, don't you even care?!_

"Well, this is interesting."

The new voice came from the doorway, drawing everyone's attention to a blonde haired man. For a moment, Raynare thought the Gremory's peerage had come for Issei but Kalawarner's reaction told her different.

She stepped back, pale as a ghost with shaky knees. "It's him!" She hissed to Raynare. "It's _him_!"

Raynare's gaze snapped toward the blonde, conjuring a dozen light spears in the blink of an eye. "Kill the devil!"

The others obeyed, adding their own weapons into the mix and unleashing a hail of spears at their target. Naruto rolled, twisted, and jumped through the bombardment as though he were a stream of water, until he simply caught the last spear before it could reach his chest.

It was a sight that had the fallen angels gaping. Light was poisonous to devils. The effects may be mitigated by the level of strength but even a satan would be burned by touching a light spear.

"Impossible," Raynare whispered to herself, an almost fervent plea to her own voice as her eyes bore witness to something her mind couldn't accept. "There isn't a devil in existence who can touch light and not be burned. What are you?!"

Naruto's eyes bore into them. "Have you fallen so far you cannot even recognize your opposite?"

Opposite. The word drummed in her head and made her blood run cold. No, it wasn't possible, it couldn't be. . .

But there was no mistaking the ethereal glow to his cerulean eyes or the colossal pair of wings that flared out from his back, looking confined even within the wide open church. They were shaped just like theirs, save for the composition. For they were not made of feathers, but pure light.

"My name is Naruto," His voice thrummed with a power that resonated through the fallen angels, "and I'm the angel of Leviathan."

* * *

 **A/N**

 **I know, I know. Holy forty days later, batman! Apologies, this definitely took longer than I expected. I was originally going to end it after Raynare left the church to find Asia but I decided to extend it. You're welcome.  
**

 **Now before you all start flipping your computer monitors out the window and shouting: "Wtf, Naruto's an angel/devil/huh?! Oh mah gerd, can't hit unsubscribe fast enough!" (or some such.)**

 **It's not exactly that cut and dry, which I hope was picked up on by the description of his wings. More will be revealed as the story goes (starting a little in the next chapter even), so don't freak out too much.**

 **I'm sure you've noticed the absence of Freed and the whole murdering Issei's summoner thing. I always felt that was completely out of place for a group that moved to Kuoh specifically to perform a ritual far from the Grigori's prying eyes. At least, that's what I took away from the need to perform said ritual right next to devil territory and not, say, somewhere far more isolated.  
**

 **That's not to say Freed won't be appearing at all because he most certainly will, I just didn't want to use him here. I'll be making a few other changes to the canon material like that along the way. Nothing too major for the first two seasons. Season three will be a different story.**

 **I can't possibly be the only one who thought the third season of DxD was pure garbage.**

 **And no, I haven't read the light novel(s). I glanced at the first one once, just to try. . .but my god it was awful. That's not to say I think I'm a master author or anything, I just considered the formula of it to be. . .urgh.**

 **Bare bones description of setting/character/situation**

 **Insert your 60s Batman cartoon sound word cards here (Splat, Pow, Kaslizah!, etc)**

 **Quote**

 **Quote**

 **Quote**

 **He said, she said, they did.**

 **FUCK!**


	3. Enter the Angel

[{}]

 _Naruto found him outside the city limits, with eyes fixed on the endless stretch of purple sky above their heads. He sat down beside him. Neither spoke a word for several minutes. Even from the outskirts of Lilith, the sound of the bells could still be heard. There was an ominous finality to each toll that signified more than just the loss of a life._

 _"Has it always been so dark down here?"_

 _Naruto grimaced. "I've started to wonder that myself lately. It certainly seems like it."_

 _A hand stretched out, fingers stretching out toward the sky. "Sometimes, I like to imagine that its right there, just beyond the shimmering layer." The hand dropped then, a weary sigh escaping him while his voice sounded softer. "I imagine that's how humans feel about it."_

 _"Perhaps."_

 _"Naruto?" The blonde turned. The suddenly hollow voice of his friend startled him, but it was nothing compared to the sight of moisture beginning to gather in those green eyes. "Do you think we'll ever be able to go back to heaven?"_

 _There was a desperation about him that made Naruto want to say yes more than anything, to reassure his friend that, someday, it would be a reality, that they would glimpse the celestial realm with their own eyes. But the words wouldn't come. He knew the truth and he was never able to lie to his friends._

 _"I don't know."_

 _It was the dream that had given them something to strive toward, to fight for. But, it seemed to be have been growing slimmer and slimmer with each passing century. Now, with the tolling bells ringing in his ears, it seemed that it was all it would ever remain, a dream._

* * *

 **III. Enter the Angel**

[{}}

The outpouring of angelic grace continued to build, until the very air felt saturated with his presence, and with it came a pressure that forced three of the fallen angels to their knees. Their wings retracted as they all but collapsed to the ground. They trembled in his wake, black feathers shaking loose in their distress. Raynare was the only one standing. Even though her legs were quivering and she looked absolutely terrified, her fists were clenched at her sides. She had never been one to accept things as they were. She had not bowed to the whims of her own creator, she would not kneel to one of his proxies either.

It took a great deal of effort for Kalawarner to lift her head. Was this truly the same being she'd met before? There was no trace of the faint demonic signature he seemed to constantly exude, it was as if it had been burned away by the brilliant light. Even the brief surge of power he'd shown earlier were nothing compared to this. The last time she'd felt such an overwhelming force, had been when she was still of heaven and had been in the presence of one of the seraphim.

"When I first learned of the existence of fallen angels, I had such high hopes." None of them could meet Naruto's piercing stare. "You had stood in direct defiance of the almighty himself, and been cast out for it. I thought that, surely, a group of angels unbridled by heaven's weighty restrictions and able to think for themselves would be _something of note_!"

A silence descended in the wake of his thundering voice. For a moment, his lips twisted into a vicious snarl, until it slowly settled back into a line and he continued in a softer voice. "I couldn't have been more wrong."

Naruto's eyes flicked to Raynare, the only one still daring to look in his direction. "Tell me, fallen, what do you plan to do with the sacred gear you've stolen? Do you even know?"

There was a pitying look in his eyes that she simply could not stand. It was even worse than the looks usually given by her heavenly siblings, who thought she needed to be saved. He made it seem like she had no worth, as if her existence amounted to nothing.

Despite her ever present fear, she couldn't help but growl. "I'm proving my worth. I will be an example for others to look up to."

He nodded as though it had been the answer he was expecting. "This is the real problem with fallen angels. For all your bluster and talk of finding your own way, your group has accomplished nothing. You have no goals, no ambitions, no _purpose_." A blade of light appeared in his hands, the point lifted toward the fallen angels. "Such a waste."

Naruto moved liked nothing they'd ever seen. One moment he was standing there and the next thing they knew he just seemed to vanish in a flash. The screams were the first clue that he had even moved. Raynare snapped her gaze to her right, her eyes wide at the sight of Mittelt and Dohnaseek with gaping wounds in their chests. Tendrils of light spread outward from the injuries, both of the fallen screaming as their bodies absorbed a substance that had long since become completely foreign to them. Their cries reached a crescendo and Raynare watched in horror as they just exploded into clouds of feathers.

Those glowing, blue eyes turned toward her, the bloodied blade lifted and Raynare panicked. She backed away on reflex, her eyes wide and her voice trembling. "Get away," she screamed, "get _away_!"

She hurled a light spear, only to watch in shock as he simply batted it aside as though it were an errant gnat. He stepped forward and she froze up. She should've tried to move, made an attempt to escape, but all she could do was stare at his approach. Just before he was close enough to attack, Raynare's view was suddenly obscured by locks of blue.

Kalawarner.

Even though it was taking everything the fallen angel had just to stand in the wake of Naruto's crushing aura, she barred his path. Golden eyes locked with glowing blue. Every sense she possessed, even her very angelic nature, was screaming for her to kneel before a superior.

"Please, don't. Spare her." Her voice was meek, but it still carried in the silent church. "I'll give you anything you want. You can even take my life instead!"

The blade was thrust forward before Kalawarner could utter another syllable. "Your life is no longer yours to bargain with, fallen."

Raynare watched in mounting horror as Kalawarner's body fell to the floor. Anger exploded to the forefront of her mind, a pulsing rage that consumed her thoughts. It was enough to drown out the fear, enough to act. She conjured half a dozen spears and hurled them with an enraged cry, only to watch as he just seemed to move _through_ them.

Naruto was in front of her before she could even think of firing off another salvo, his blade piercing her abdomen. Her mouth opened in a silent scream and pain she could scarcely have imagined flooded her entire being. Just when she felt like her very insides were being set aflame, the blade was withdrawn and Raynare dropped to the ground, wheezing. She looked up at him in shock, having expecting to be terminated.

Naruto wasn't looking at her though, his eyes glued to Kalawarner. "I would not have imagined faithless curs capable of such a thing." He seemed to be speaking more to himself than her.

Generally speaking, fallen angels were more selfish than devils. Without a real, singular purpose to drive them, the majority were out only to fulfill their own ambitions- usually something revolving around the cause of their fall from grace. To see one willing to put their life on the line for another was something Naruto had never seen before. It was why he hadn't simply exterminated her like he had with her comrades.

"Your friend is dying."

Raynare flinched as his cold gaze swept over her, blinking owlishly at his sudden declaration. "W-what?"

"She clings to the barest trace of her grace, such as it is. It won't last."

He was right. Raynare had been so sure that Kalawarner had suffered the same fate as the others that she hadn't even bothered to check. Now that she was actively looking, however, she could feel it. Kalawarner was still alive, but the sensation of her grace was diminishing. She had clearly been dealt a mortal wound.

Twilight healing could be enough to mend the injury, but the ritual had drained her of a great deal of power, a situation she hadn't helped by flinging light spears around. For the first time in years she felt close to her limit. There was a chance she could use the sacred gear once, but beyond that she was not entirely sure.

Still, she had to at least try.

Raynare began to crawl over only to stop short at the flare of pain from her stomach. Her eyes shifted down to the wound that still burned. This was part of the reason she had been so anxious to receive twilight healing in the first place. One of the downsides to falling from grace was a lack of divine protection, essentially turning concentrated doses of holy energy from something helpful, to something harmful.

It didn't scorch their very essence like it did with devils but it was unpleasant and the effects, once inflicted, could not be removed. It was like having a permanent case of sun burn.

Those piercing eyes seemed to be judging her and Raynare couldn't help but clench her hands. She hated feeling weak, it was a reminder of her less than spectacular status, the very thing she was constantly trying to elevate. She highly doubted the angel looming over her would allow her to keep the sacred gear, assuming she wasn't killed right after. She did still have time to heal herself though. Her eyes flicked to Kalawarner's still form and her indecision weighed. Was she truly willing to endure a lifetime of pain just to help a subordinate?

No, she was not.

The green, healing aura manifested on her hands and she held them over the wound. Flesh was quickly knit back together, and Raynare sighed at the steady rise and fall of Kalawarner's chest. It had worked. Raynare would never be willing to go to such lengths for a mere subordinate. But for the one fallen angel who had been the closest thing she ever had to a friend amongst enemies, she would do so in a heartbeat.

Raynare wearily turned her gaze back to the angel looming above her, idly hoping the act had also bought her and Kalawarner some kind of respite.

Naruto gazed at her impassively, fingers drumming against the hilt of his conjured blade. It would have taken little more than a simple thrust. Just a quick infusion of light and he could have snuffed out her very being, erasing her so completely it would have seemed like she had never existed in the first place. It was what any other angel in creation would have done.

The light blade in his hand disappeared and he stepped closer.

Despite Nartuo's own grievances with the Grigori, part of him also sympathized with his wayward kin. If only because he understood something that no member of the Choir could comprehend. He knew what it meant to be denied eternal paradise. It was a thing that could only be understood by experience. To constantly feel a physical longing that festered in the very depth of your being; a hole that couldn't be filled no matter how hard you tried.

The celestial realm was more than just the home of angels, it was a resonance of their very essence and no matter how much one disobeyed or sinned, they would always feel the desire to go back home.

Raynare flinched at his approach, recoiling when he grabbed hold of her shoulder in one hand, and visibly shaking when the other moved to her back . "W-what are you doing?"

The holy energy gathering in his palm seemed to be his response and Raynare braced herself, expecting another bout of intense pain. It never happened. Instead, she felt herself growing weaker until the only thing keeping her up was her assailant's steady grip. When that too went away, Raynare fell to her knees.

Her limbs trembled, it felt like all the strength had left her. It took every bit of effort for her to keep from collapsing entirely. She called upon twilight healing, but nothing happened. The sacred gear didn't respond.

"Looking for this?"

Raynare turned her head slowly, violet eyes widening at the sight of the familiar green orb hovering above the angel's palm. Watching the very item she had struggled to acquire now, quite literally beyond her reach, should have filled her with rage, but Raynare was far too preoccupied with her predicament to dwell on it.

So he had removed the sacred gear, but then why did she still feel so weak?

Her mind raced. She knew that removing them was generally a tricky affair. In humans, heavenly artifacts were rooted to the soul. It was why the hosts could never survive without them once they were implanted. For a being like Raynare who was composed of celestial energy, however, it should have been just a simple matter of ejecting it by her own will. By all rights, she should have only felt a slight discomfort.

Panic stated to take hold. Where had all her strength gone? Even when she was a fresh creation, learning what it meant to be an angel she had not felt so weak. She tried to reach her grace, to feel the comforting thrum of celestial power coursing through her but there was nothing. She could sense it, but every attempt to try and grab hold felt like catching smoke in her hands. It just slipped through.

"I-I can't feel my grace." Raynare whispered to herself. The realization made her swallow and she looked to the only possible culprit, eyes wide with a frantic desperation. "What have you done to me?!"

Those glowing, blue eyes bore into her once more. This time she couldn't fight back the shudder. It was one thing to try to muster her courage and face a being of such strength while she still had powers of her own, it was another to do so when it was all gone.

"I've sealed it away."

Her eyes widened in horror. It was the worse punishment among angels, the kind only reserved for those who were incarcerated for life in the dark corner of the celestial realm. Since most angels who broke a fundamental law tended to fall from grace, a sealing was a very rare practise.

Without access to her own power, she was little better than a human.

"T-take it off." Raynare breathed out shakily. "Get it off me!" She shrieked

"You're in no position to be making demands."

The reminder was all it took for Raynare to recoil, her gaze hurriedly shifting to the ground. "Y-you can not do this."

"Its horrifying, isn't it? Being weak, helpless."

Her eyes strained shut and it was only the last of her stubborn resolve that kept her tears from falling. "Why don't you just kill me?"

She spoke in a defeated tone, her voice quiet and morose. Naruto would certainly be within his rights to stamp out the last remnants of the fallen angel trespassers, but what she had said earlier about being an example for her own kin had stirred something in him. It wasn't that long ago that he had once felt a similar desire. Not to mention Kalawarner's willingness to take a hit for another fallen angel already put her leagues above most of her kind.

"Because that would be too easy."

With that foreboding message, Naruto turned his attention away from the fallen angels and, instead, looked the nun whom twilight healing belonged with. She had already been taken down from the machine by Fiona and laid down on one of the pews, along with the devil who had been trying to help. His familiar's presence had been completely unnoticed amidst his own aura, it was part of the reason he had flared his power as much as he did. Fairies could be invisible by choice but not when they were actively using their own powers.

"What is the devil's condition?"

Fiona looked up from her overwatch on the top of the pew. "The holy energy from the spears has been removed and I mended his wounds, he's stable."

Naruto nodded. "And the girl?"

The fairy looked a bit more sombre as she turned to the nun. "She's fading quickly, faster than I had expected. She has several more minutes at best."

It wouldn't matter even if twilight healing was reinserted, the damage had already been done.

If he were anyone else, Naruto would have had to write her off as a lost cause. Only angels like Raphael, who specialized in healing, were capable of the kind of meticulous work needed to mend such extensive damage. While there were a fair share of differences between himself and those of the heavenly host, the lack of healing magic was true for him as well. Not because he didn't know any, but because of its very nature.

Unless an angel had precise control over their own holy energy they could wind up causing more harm than good. It wasn't something that was a problem between angels. Holy energy was naturally beneficial to the celestial beings, so even an overdose in a healing spell wouldn't cause any problems. The same could not be said for other species, however.

That was why Naruto had sought out a fairy to be his familiar in the first place, to give him access to abilities that would otherwise be beyond his reach. In addition to the repertoire of healing magic at their command, Fairies also produced their own healing by-product called fairy dust.

It was something of a marvel among the supernatural. Even if it wasn't quite as revered as phoenix tears, its own healing properties were nothing to scoff at and matched only by the alchemical value. It was also difficult to come by, with only the barest traces of it picked up in Fairy forests. Prospective alchemists would spend days roaming the edges of fairy territory just to scrape together enough of the ingredient for a single potion.

"Would it be possible to slow it down?"

Fiona looked toward him in bewilderment. Her master knew full well that neither her spells nor her fairy dust would be enough to heal the injury. Soul damage was no small measure of trauma and even phoenix tears would not be enough. She opened her mouth to remind him, only to close it again and blink when Twilight Healing was held up in front of her. By itself, replacing the sacred gear would do no good. With the help of her magic though, it could be possible to use it like a buffer and keep the damage contained. It would be like trying to seal a water leak with tape, however. The best it would do was buy time.

"Even if I could," she began slowly, green eyes flicking up to regard him, "It would only be a temporary thing."

"How temporary?"

She tilted her head, making a guess more than anything. "A day, perhaps two."

At Naruto's command to proceed, Fiona placed the sacred gear back into the nun's body. The quick fluttering of her wings had the girl covered in dust in a matter of seconds. It enveloped her in a golden glow, one that gradually intensified as Fiona added more traditional healing spells into the mix. The nun's breathing began to even out, gradually growing stronger until the weak gasps turned into deep breaths that had her chest rising and falling with each intake of air.

"That should do it." Fiona panted. It had been awhile since she had felt so magically drained. She barely had the strength to move her wings and it took everything she had just to maintain a hover.

Naruto scooped her up when she started to sway, cradling her in his arm. He smiled down at his exhausted familiar. "You did well Fiona. Take a rest."

It was advice she didn't have a problem following as her eyes fluttered closed. Naruto looked to the nun and laid a hand on her forehead.

 _[{"Stay alive."}]_

It was like something out of a fever dream. It was the only way Asia could make sense of it. One moment she was experiencing a pain the likes of which she had never conceived possible, then all she could see was a blurry set of images accompanied with the sense of being weaker, until she saw a man wreathed in light. And then the next thing she knew, she was lying on a bed staring up at the ceiling. Amber eyes blinked owlishly as she took in her surroundings. It definitely looked like someone's house. Was she dead? Was this what heaven was like? Asia tried to sit up, only to be hit by a wave of dizzyness that put a halt to her movements. She took things a bit more slowly after that, moving gingerly onto her feet and toward the door.

The house was bigger than the nun was accustomed and it took her some time to navigate through the hallways. Her repeated inquiries went unanswered as she moved downstairs but the smell of food and her rumbling stomach served as much of a guide as she made her way toward the kitchen.

It took a great deal of effort for her to move. Her legs felt like they were fitted with lead weights and her very muscles screamed in protest every time she took a step. Asia had hoped her bout of weakness would subside but, if anything, it seemed to be getting worse. She stumbled, only keeping herself upright by leaning against the wall. Even that wasn't enough to steady her for long and she began to fall.

The impact she was expecting against the floor never came. Instead, she felt arms encircle her and ease her back to her feet. The nun turned to thank her saviour, only to freeze when she saw just who it was that had a hold of her.

"L-lady Raynare." She spoke in a carrying whisper, a knot of fear settling in her stomach at the sight of the fallen angel.

Raynare showed no reaction to her name, however. She didn't even look in Asia's direction as she half-carried, half-dragged the girl toward the kitchen.

The moment Raynare brought her inside, Asia's eyes were immediately focused on the sight of a tiny woman perched on the countertop and eating a cookie that was easily three times her size. Asia blinked in befuddlement, it was so outlandish that, for a moment, she was utterly certain that she was still stuck in some weird dream.

It was a belief reinforced by the fact that Raynare seemed to be helping her and that she was wearing a maid's outfit to boot. Even more strange was that Kalawarner was sitting on the opposite end, a demure posture to her form as she kept her eyes fixed solely onto her plate of food.

What in the world was going on?

Asia was broken from her musing as Raynare suddenly spoke up. "I brought the nun, as commanded."

The last part carried more than a tinge of resentment, not that the recipient paid it any heed as he turned to face her with a smile while he handed her plate. "Very good, you may be seated."

Raynare gave the barest approximation of a bow before taking the food and sitting next to Kalawarner, leaving Asia to stare in wonder at the room's other occupant.

"It's you."

The words were spoken in little more than a whisper but it was enough to draw the attention of her fellow blonde standing in front of the stove. "Ah, good morning miss. Breakfast is almost ready."

Asia wasn't listening, too busy fixating on the fact she was, in fact, still alive, awake, and in someone else's house. "You came for me at the church." She spoke slowly more to herself than anyone else. "Issei?!" She suddenly blurted out, "Is Issei alright?"

Naruto raised a calming hand. "Your devil friend is safe. He's back with his master, unharmed, and perfectly fine."

She could feel the sincerity in his voice. "Thank you."

Asia had a very vague recollection of seeing her fellow blonde at the church. It had been one of the many images she could recall as she shifted in and out of consciousness. What had really stood out to her were the wings, ones made of light. At the time she had thought it was some kind of hallucination, but here he was, standing right in front of her. Even more compelling was that a faint holy aura still clung to him like a second skin. She must have been in the presence of an angel.

Naruto turned around at the sound of a thump, half-expecting to see that the newly awakened nun had stumbled, only to find that she was nowhere in sight. A questioning look to his familiar had her pointing down below the kitchen table. Naruto followed her directions, leaning his head to the side until he saw the nun kneeling on the ground with her hands clasped in prayer. He had to fight from chuckling at the sight.

"Now, now. There's no need for that. I'm not one of those angels."

Her eyes slowly opened while her hands began to lower. The slow draw of apprehension on her face made him realize that probably wasn't the best way to phrase that. Particularly when her eyes darted between both himself and the two fallen angels seated on the other end of the table.

"Don't worry." He whispered, inclining his head toward his new house guests. "I'm not one of those crows either."

He was pleased to see some of the tension in her posture ease, but she still looked more than a little lost.

"I-I don't understand."

Naruto smiled as he helped her into a chair. "Let's just say that the angel of Leviathan wouldn't be very well received by the heavenly host."

Asia's eyes widened and she stared dumbstruck at the idea of an angel working with devils. Naruto wasn't sure what sort of reaction to expect from the faithful girl but it certainly wasn't to see a look of understanding dawn on her face.

"I see," she began quietly. "You descended from heaven to teach devils about the grace of god and turn them from their wicked ways."

The sudden assertion took him by surprise and he could only stare dumbfounded at the sheer conviction in the girl's voice. ". . .what?"

But Asia didn't even seem to be paying attention. "And now you're also trying to do the same with the Grigori. Such a noble endeavour."

He shot a look at Fiona the moment she gave a loud snort at the flabbergasted look on his face. Her wild attempt to cover her mouth and stifle her laughter did nothing to appease him, particularly when he could see the mirth dancing in her eyes at his scowl.

"Can I at least have the name of the nun who has praised me?" He asked in a desperate attempt to at least save face, not that he felt it was working with his familiar's muffled giggles still resounding in the room.

The girl flushed scarlet at the realization that she had never even introduced herself. "I'm very sorry, mister angel. My name is Asia Argento."

"Naruto," He immediately corrected, making a face at the idea of ever being referred to as 'mister angel' ever again. "You seem awfully devout though, for someone who was ingratiated with fallen angels."

The words did not sound judgemental but Asia could not help the wince that escaped her. "I've never stopped believing in god, even after I was excommunicated with the church."

"Indeed. And why would such a pious girl be cast aside?"

Shakily, she told him of her ordeal. She spoke of how she was raised by the church, how, one day, it was discovered that she wielded a sacred gear when she was able to heal an injured puppy. It was decided that she be relocated then, and Asia was sent to a much larger establishment, exchanging the small abbey she'd grown up in for the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Flower in Florence. The bishop there anointed her as the Holy Maiden and she was tasked with healing all the sick and injured who came seeking help.

All that goodwill changed on the day she used her power to heal a devil. It was an act that had been witnessed by another and word quickly spread. Overnight she went from being the holy maiden everyone respected to the witch with demonic powers that no-one could stand.

"Why would you help a devil? Surely, you'd been taught different."

She found it difficult to meet his eyes then. It had been hard enough receiving the scorn of priests and exorcists. As much as they fervently declared how god would not approve, they were not connected to the almighty like his celestial messengers. But if one of his own were to shun her choice, she didn't know how she'd take it.

"I. . .believe that its my job to help those in need, regardless of who they are. God must feel the same!" The sudden shout took even Asia by surprise. Her cheeks flushed and her gaze dropped to the table as she finished in a voice scarcely above a whisper. "Otherwise he wouldn't have given me this gift."

A snort across the table had Asia warily looking to Raynare. "Sacred gears are not chosen in such a manner, it was only luck that-"

"No-one asked for your opinion," Naruto cut her off, his voice abruptly cold. as he cast the fallen angel a look she hastily shied away from.

Still, there was some truth to what Raynare was going to say. Sacred gear wielders weren't exactly chosen on such merits like Asia believed. As far as Naruto had been able to tell it seemed to be more of a randomization than anything. There was no other way to explain why the artifacts could be bestowed upon those who weren't even religious to begin with. Perhaps it had been based on god's belief that every man had the right to choose, but as far as Naruto was concerned, it just made it easier for the wielders to be taken in by other factions when the sacred gears finally awakened.

He didn't say any of that to the nun though. The way her green eyes nervously flicked to him beneath her curtain of blonde tresses made it clear that she was hoping for some kind of approval. It was actually kind of cute.

"Do you believe that what you did was right?"

Asia looked a little unsure to be asked directly, but seemed to gather her courage and offer a tiny nod.

He smiled at her then, putting her growing worries to rest. "Then what does it matter what anyone else says. The ability to choose is a powerful thing, something that already makes humans better than others." Naruto shot a pointed look to Raynare, smiling innocently.

The fallen angel narrowed her eyes and looked more than ready to snap off a retort, but a sharp nudge from Kalawarner made her think better of it. She only gripped the edges of the table tighter instead.

Naruto paid her no mind though and turned back to Asia. "You have a choice to make now as well."

Asia looked between them for a moment, nervous at the sudden tension. "W-what do you mean?"

"I'm sure you've noticed that you're not exactly at a hundred percent right now. Your sacred gear was removed. My familiar was able to put it back and restore your vitality but its not going to last forever. In less than two days, you will die."

The nun looked bewildered, staring at him wide eyed.

He knew it would be a shock, to know that her condition would only deteriorate and not improve. It was why he wanted to speak to the girl now before she became sickly. "But it doesn't have to be the end."

Asia looked surprised. "What do you mean?"

Instead of answering, Naruto asked a question of his own. "Did Issei ever tell you how he became a devil?"

She looked a little thrown by the roundabout query, but answered with a shake of her head.

"He's what those in the underworld refer to as a reincarnated devil; someone who was turned into one through the use of an evil piece. The same could be used on you."

It was a lot to take in and he was not surprised to see that she looked uncertain. "If I did this, I could live?"

Naruto nodded. "You would live. But you need to understand that becoming a devil has its share of disadvantages as well. Interactions with light objects will cause you pain, that includes everything from holy swords to the cross around your neck. You'd belong to the underworld."

Asia's gaze immediately dropped to her necklace and she took it in her hand, fingering the silver symbol. She was quiet for a time, until her shoulders started to tremble and he could hear her sniffling. "I wish I did not have to make this kind of choice." She whispered quietly, more to herself than anyone else. "Can't I just live my life like I had been."

She looked up, her eyes glistened with moisture. "Why are you even asking me?"

"You're a woman of faith. I've seen plenty who would rather die as a human, than live as a devil."

Her gaze flicked to the side, her brow creasing in thought as she looked for all the world as though she were torn.

The conflict was easy to understand. Here was a girl who'd been raised in an environment that promoted selfless acts, had been performing them her whole life, and had only recently begun to look into what her own heart desired.

"You still have time to reach a decision," Naruto gently reminded when she began to worry her lip. "In the meantime," he brightened as he served the nun breakfast, "you should eat."

Asia looked a bit thrown by his sudden cheer but recovered and followed his advice. She paused at the exquisite taste, her eyes brightening before she quickly began to eat at a more rapid pace. It wasn't long until her plate was cleared. Asia, herself, seemed shocked by just how carried away she had gotten and blushed when she noticed the two fallens looking at her somewhat incredulously while her fellow blonde smiled in amusement.

"I'm sorry," She squeaked out, feeling more than a little embarrassed. "It was really good."

"I should hope so," Naruto said with a chuckle, "Otherwise all my experience has been for naught. Now, I know you've just woken up. But it would be best if you refrain from too much activity, until you've made your decision. Raynare and Kalawarner will see you back to your room." He finished with an obvious commanding look directed to the fallen.

Kalawarner immediately acknowledged with an incline of her head while Raynare looked rebellious for the briefest of moments before she merely grit her teeth and moved over to help the nun to her feet.

"Mister Naruto?"

The quiet voice sounded at the doorway of the kitchen, forcing Raynare to stop as Asia craned her head back to look at the angel.

"Yes?" Naruto prompted when silence began to reign.

". . .would you think less of me if I became a devil?"

Any other angel in existence would. Those of the celestial realm were rigid. To them there was no interpretation or flexibility concerning matters of heaven and hell, only the will of the almighty. But Naruto was not part of the heavenly host.

"I did not become the angel of Leviathan to scorn devils."

* * *

 **AN:**

 **No, strangers your eyes haven't betrayed you, its actually an update. I'm sure it feels like it took** **ages for some fool to get it together and write a simple chapter, but its probably just your imagination.**

 **Truthfully, it was more in part to the fact that I kept rewriting this. There were little ideas and hints I wanted to add in this chapter, things I just wasn't satisfied with, and other parts I wasn't sure whether to keep at all. Specifically, the Kalawarner and Raynare thing. Hopefully, you'll find the idea of Kalawarner saving Raynare to be plausible based on the couple hints I'd given in the last chapter and not something that just came out of left field.**

 **Well, I'm sure you'll let me know. (This is a subtle review reminder)**

 **As for Naruto deciding to spare them. Yes, he told Kalawarner he'd lay them to waste. But that phrase could mean ruin as well as destroy. I left it kind of ambiguous on purpose, you see.**

 **The full explanation of just how Naruto's is an angel is something I'll be saving further down the line. Its not like it will be a revelation but I'm sure most of you will be surprised by how it plays out since, to my knowledge, it hasn't been done before.**

 **Now, I'm not really one for putting review responses in the actual story- since I don't like to make the word count quite so misleading- but I do want to give a quick thanks to the many who asked/commented in a Diablo connection.**

 **I didn't even know what that was before people started posting things about it, but I was very interested in what I found. Not the game itself mind you, the whole dungeon crawler thing has never really appealed to me. But those cutscenes. . .(insert fangirl squeal). Screw video games, they should have made all that into a short film. The scene with Tyrael's fall especially. I _really_ liked that one.**

 **My idea of the light wings actually came from Naruto itself. More specifically, during the Sasuke retrieval arc when Choji eats those three coloured. . .things and the red one allows him to manifest those chakra wings. Obviously in UA they're not butterfly shaped (or chakra based), but that was where I got the concept from.**

 **Let me know what you think of this chapter, perhaps in some kind of review (This is a not so subtle review reminder but it's still a reminder. A reminder to review.)**


	4. Deliverance

**IV Deliverance**

[{Unholy Heading}]

"Please consider us the next time you are hungry."

Raynare's voice lacked any real enthusiasm as she handed out the flier. Not that the man who took it seemed to notice. He was far too busy staring at the woman's thousand watt smile. He took the brightly coloured piece of paper without a second thought, seemingly mesmerized by her appearance.

"T-thank you." The man stammered out with a blush as he continued on his way.

She drank in the effects of her acting with a barely repressed smirk. It wasn't all that surprising to her really, humans were so easily enthralled. Even without her ability to transform, she still had a great deal of experience to fall back on. There was a reason fallen angels were skilled at seduction. It had been a necessity in the beginning, otherwise they would never have been able to tempt their heavenly siblings into the fold to increase their numbers.

Still, Raynare would have preferred to use her Yuma Amano disguise. There was a reason it was her go to transformation for these kinds of things; Issei had hardly been the first to fall for the cute and innocent routine.

Thoughts of her current limitations had her hand reflexively going to the nape of her neck, where that damnable seal had been slapped on her. It took an intrinsic knowledge of the archaic art to even begin deciphering an array and Raynare had never bothered to pursue any studies outside of combat. It was the only time she'd found herself actually wishing that Dohnaseek was still around. The vast knowledge of his might have at least given her the chance to figure out how to circumvent it. As things stood, all she could do was endure it.

More fliers were handed out, men and women alike taken in by Raynare's charms. She prided herself on the lighter touch. Any supernatural being could cast a spell to mess with the mind, but only the truly skilled could manipulate with words alone and she had been doing it for centuries. It was only when a handful of fliers remained in her basket that her smile began to dip. Raynare had taken so much pride in her work that she had completely forgotten the fact that it had been something she didn't even want to do in the first place.

"Why the hell am I even doing this?!"

More than a few of the pedestrians stopped to stare at the woman suddenly shrieking and throwing fliers on the ground. Raynare ignored their shocked looks and made her way back to Uzumaki Ramen. She was beginning to think that death would have been a more preferable alternative to the servitude both she and Kalawarner seemed to have been trapped in. If the two of them weren't tasked with being that blasted angel's glorified maids then they were doing other tasks that were just as menial to a fallen angel.

She cast the doors open and marched inside, ignoring the inquiring looks thrown her way by the patrons. She was surprised by just how many people seemed to be wiling to eat the angel's pig slop. The restaurant was almost taxed to capacity, with many of the clientele being male. It was undoubtedly something owed to both herself and Kalawarner. The latter of whom was moving among tables taking orders and delivering food. She moved with fluidic grace, each step exuding a kind of natural sensuality that held the eyes of almost everyone in the restaurant.

That all stopped when she saw Raynare marching inside. Kalawarner quickly handed out the most recent order of ramen and strolled over. "Raynare, what are you doing? Aren't you supposed to be handing out fliers?"

She shot her companion a bewildered look. Through all the ridiculous tasks that had been forced upon them, Kalawarner had never once uttered a word of complaint. She had thought it to be an elaborate deception at first but now she wasn't so sure.

"What is going on with you? Have you forgotten that we've become little more than servants to that blasted angel."

Kalawarner seemed taken aback by Raynare's hiss but recovered after a moment. "Of course I haven't," she bit back irritably, "but blustering about is not going to help matters. What we can do, is take advantage of the situation to ingratiate ourselves into his confidence."

It was a perfectly viable strategy that had her served well in the past. Raynare had even seen it play out a time or two herself. The manipulative approach would take time, though, something Raynare was rapidly losing patience with. She opened her mouth to say just that when a thought occurred and she snapped it shut instead. Her expression slowly shifted to a blank look, her voice taking on an incredulous tone.

"You're planning to seduce him, aren't you?"

Kalawarner's cheeks took on a pink tinge. It was all the confirmation Raynare needed and she shook her head. Kalawarner may have been a fallen of temptation but she still had thing for authority. When she was an angel it had been shown in the form of a strictness toward subordinates, and a near zealous devotion to those of a higher station.

In the wake of her fall it had turned into something of a more. . .deferent nature.

Raynare forced herself to take a breath. It was all she could do not to simply slap some sense into her friend. To think that her companion had become somewhat enamoured with an angel who was, for all intents and purposes, their captor was beyond foolish.

"For crying out loud." She growled through clenched teeth.

"He has made it clear that he stands above us." Kalawarner tried to defend herself. Recalling that overbearing presence made her rub her thighs. It had been such a brilliant light that she felt like she had been staring into the heart of a star. "Besides," she quickly continued on a more serious note when Raynare's furious glower bore into her, "it is preferable to the alternative."

Raynare barely bit back a scoff. Alternative was far too kind of a word for it. A choice between death and servitude was hardly a choice at all. Raynare did not like to admit it but it would've taken a measure of bravery to choose the former. Despite all her talk, when she had actually become confronted with her own mortality she'd been terrified, weak. Just the memory of it made her grit her teeth.

"You may be content with this. . .arrangement." Raynare spat the word like a poison as her eyes roamed around the restaurant. "But I've had enough and I won't suffer these indignities anymore."

"Raynare-"

Kalawarner tried to stop her but she brushed her off and threw open the door to the kitchen.

She found the angel hunched over a pot of that poisonous concoction he called food. That little fairy of his was fluttering about, rummaging through the kitchen cabinets until she flew towards her master with a jar of seasoning. He added it to the pot and slurped up a spoonful, a contemplative noise escaping him. Gathering up her courage, Raynare opened her mouth to speak.

Naruto beat her to it though, holding up a finger while he turned to his familiar. "Time?"

Fiona flew over to the counter, her tiny hands lifting up a stop watch. "Twelve minutes, forty-two seconds." Her tone was decidedly smug. "You owe me a cupcake."

Naruto blew out a breath. "Yes, yes, you'll get your sweets after we're done here." He mumbled before finally turning to acknowledge Raynare. "You lasted longer than I expected."

She faltered for a moment, until the implication of it all sunk in and her hands curled into fists. The idea that the two had taken bets on how long she'd keep at her ridiculous task only served to fan the fire in her veins.

"I've had enough of these ridiculous games. I will not perform those menial chores anymore." She started with a quiet conviction, but her voice quickly got more heated with every word she spoke. "I did not survive through the Great War and all the fucking skirmishes since just to be your personal servant! If you want maids and workers so badly you should just make use of these lowly humans!" She breathed harshly, her shoulders shaking from her fury while she glared at her captor.

He didn't say anything in the wake of her heated shouts, just stared at her for a moment until he let out a breath and stood up. Despite the anger coursing through her, Raynare couldn't help but flinch when he started moving towards her. She could only hold his intense gaze for a moment before looking away. The memory of his glowing eyes made her shiver, but she forced herself to stand her ground, to be resolute. Finally, he was only an arms distance away and Raynare started to sweat. What was he going to do? He raised his hand and she instinctively squeezed her eyes shut, imagining his blade tearing through her again.

All her wild imaginings flew out the window as Naruto simply bonked her nose. She opened her eyes to see his lips curled into a decisive smirk.

"It's cute that you think you have a choice." His hand dropped then and he stepped back, a contemplative noise escaping him. "Still, I suppose you have been working somewhat hard. As a reward, take a short vacation."

It took a moment for that statement to actually sink in. "Really?"

"Absolutely." Naruto waited just long enough for her expression to brighten. "Did you enjoy it?"

"W-what?"

He dismissed her with a flick of his wrist. "Get back to work Raynare."

There was a moment of silence as the fallen blinked. Incredulity warred with bewilderment, only for her lips to finally press into a thin line.

"Goodness, this place is so lively."

Raynare whirled in the direction of the newcomer, more than ready to unleash her growing anger on the person that she believed to be an overzealous customer, only to clamp her mouth shut when she caught sight of her. The woman was gorgeous. Crystal clear blue eyes framed a heart shaped face, peeking out from behind the bangs of ivory coloured hair that fell down to her waist. She moved with an otherworldly grace and seemed to glide into the room. The strapless, ankle length maroon dress made her look like some sort of princess.

As disarming as her appearance was though, it wasn't what threw Raynare for a loop. What truly gave her pause, was the darkness.

It was the kind of thing only a supernatural being could perceive, the coiled, wispy aura emitting out from her like a miasma. And, in the centre, an infinite darkness that threatened to draw everything into its void. It was enough to make her hackles rise. Even with her grace sealed Raynare was still afforded some luxuries and she was one of the few fallen outside of the cadre level who would recognize the foul presence.

"Demon," She breathed out, reflexively trying to conjure a light spear only to curse when she remembered she could not.

The woman turned to her, the brilliant smile so completely at odds with her presence that Raynare wanted to gag. "Such a compliment, and from someone I've never met as well." She stepped closer and Raynare quickly took just as many steps back, her muscles tensing. "Come now, there's no need to be so shy little crow. I don't bite. Too much."

"Stop teasing my employee Mira." Naruto called with a chuckle from his place by the stove. "You'll just give her a heart attack."

Raynare snapped her head toward the blonde, her eyes wide as she looked between them. He actually knew this creature?!

"Oh, you never let me have any fun."

To Raynare's immense relief, the demon stepped back, though the pouting look was enough to make her shiver. It was just so inherently wrong for a hell spawn to try to look innocent. At least the forest sprite had the right idea. She practically collided with her master the moment the creature stepped in and hastily tried to shield herself from view. Emerald eyes cautiously peered out at the woman over Naruto's shoulder.

"N-nice to see you again Mirajane." Fiona timidly greeted. She didn't have anything against the woman personally, but it was in a fairy's nature to shy away from darkness and demons had it in abundance.

It was something Mirajane knew as well and why she only waved from a distance. "Hello Fiona."

Leaving his familiar to tend to the cooking, Naruto made his way over. "Is something wrong?" He had not been expecting anyone from the peerage to visit, outside of perhaps a few drop-ins from Serafall herself.

She waved off his concerns with a smile. "Nothing wrong, per say, but something unusual has happened. Azazel has formally requested a meeting."

Naruto raised a brow. Unusual, indeed. While he had expected to hear from the Grigori governor, it had been in his usual capacity to simply drop in unannounced. The amount of times Azazel had taken to following protocol in such an official manner could be counted on one hand, with fingers to spare.

"Where and when is this supposed to happen."

"Two hours from now, in a little village called Shima."

Naruto nodded. Kuoh itself would not be a viable option considering the circumstances, but Shima was an ideal alternative. It was far enough away from Kuoh to be blatantly outside devil territory, but close enough to emphasize the reason for talks in the first place. It was also a completely neutral location as far as supernatural factions were concerned. Not that he was expecting duplicity from the fallen angel leader, but it never hurt to be cautious.

"I would say it was also unwarranted," Mirajane continued as she threw a significant look toward Raynare, "but you seem to have picked up some attachments since you left. Which is odd," Mirajane added with a tilt of her head, "because I don't recall Serafall ever mentioning it."

"Yes, well. . ." Naruto coughed in the face of Mirajane's scrutiny, rubbing the back of his neck. "I may have. . .forgotten to tell her."

"Naruto" Mirajane began with an indulgent smile, "are you starting your own flock?"

"Nothing so ridiculous." He responded with a roll of his eyes. "They're not entirely like the rest of their kind, I merely want to see just how far it extends. Who knows," he continued with a shrug, "they may even surprise me again."

She patted his cheek. "Well I think its cute that you've picked up some errant crows. Are you sure you can care for them though, its an awful lot of responsibility."

Raynare stood off to the side with fists clenched so tightly her nails were digging into her palm. The rage, which had subsided with the demon's entrance, boiled right back to a simmer at those remarks. It was bad enough that the two were talking about her as if she wasn't even there, but the allusion that she was some sort of _pet_ was a stretch much too far.

"You're one to speak of pets, demon!" She growled, wanting nothing more than to rip off that damnable seal and skewer her with a volley of spears. "I'm surprised there are any of you depraved abominations still clinging to your fading-"

"Raynare."

It was all Naruto said to begin with, but it was enough to curb her tirade and make her mouth snap shut. He spoke in little more than a whisper, but the icy undercurrent swept through the entire room.

"Thus far, I have tolerated your defiance, if only because you are one of the most prideful angels I've seen in a long time, and I've found the whole experience somewhat nostalgic." His eyes drilled into her, "but know that if you ever insult Mira again, you will no longer need to worry about being in my service. Am I understood?"

Raynare nodded rapidly. "Y-yes."

There was no flickering of his aura, no extended wings, or blaring magical pressure. If only because they both knew that he did not need to. The tone of his voice alone was enough to get her attention and the glacial blue eyes reminded her all too well of what he could do.

"Then go and help Kalawarner. Now."

She couldn't leave fast enough, practically scrambling out of the kitchen and back out to the tables.

Mirajane watched her go, an amused smile on her lips. "They don't seem particularly well trained." She remarked as she looked back at Naruto.

He sighed in agreement. "Its a work in progress."

"I could help."

That garnered a smile from the blonde. "The type of things you have in mind are not something they're ready for. I wouldn't want to traumatize them for life."

Mirajane poked him in the ribs, a pout on her face. "See what I mean? Always spoiling my fun."

"Speaking of which," Naruto remarked with a grin as he took hold of her hand, "you could just as easily have told me all about this Grigori meeting through a communication spell."

"I suppose I _could_ have," Mirajane affirmed with a tilt of her head. She grabbed hold of his shirt and pulled him down into a searing kiss, one that deepened mere moments after their lips met. They separated only when the need for air became apparent, their faces only inches apart. "But then I wouldn't be able to do that." She finished in a breathless gasp.

"Well, that would certainly have been a shame."

Mirajane hummed in agreement, a half lidded gaze to her eyes while she licked her lips as if she could still taste him. "Serafall isn't the only one anxiously awaiting your return you know."

There was a pause and Naruto blinked owlishly. "I never knew Behemoth felt that way."

He nimbly dodged her playful swat, chuckling while she let out a huff. "Maybe next time, I will just settle for a communication spell."

There was that smile, that damnable grin of his that never failed to make her feel warm. "Oh Mira, we both know you can't stay away from me. What is that philosophy? Yang and Yin. Light and dark, push and pull." He emphasized the last with a suggestive thrust of his hips.

A look of bemusement flickered across her face before her lips curved into a sultry smile. She leaned in for another kiss only to stop just before their lips could touch while she laid a finger on his chest. "It is a pity we don't have more time," She said with a teasing smirk as she pulled away, "but Serafall is doing another shoot in Magical Levy soon and I have another role to play this time."

The mention of the Underworld's hit TV show was enough to make him grin. "Oh, reprising your part as the nefarious Composite-Witch?"

"What can I say? I'm quite good at the role."

Her sweet smile was enough to make him snort. That was an understatement, Mirajane had taken to the villainous character so well that her scenes were, more often than not, genuinely frightening. Even the film crew tended to get nervous during her performances. Considering that she was the sworn nemesis of Magical Levy and that neither of them pulled any punches during their fight scenes, it wasn't difficult to understand why.

"Oh and you may want to stand by for this as well. I wouldn't be surprised if poor little Levy needs the help of her trusty Akatsuki to pull her tight ass out of the fire."

There was a sharp gleam to those blue eyes that had Naruto quirking his lips. "You know you two don't _actually_ have to try to kill each other on set."

"Of course we don't," Mirajane agreed before her lips stretched into a wicked smile, "but where would be the fun in that?" A magical circle appeared beneath her feet then and she disappeared with a teasing wave.

Naruto watched her go, shaking his head with a smile. If there was one person who lived up to the title of demon as well as Lilith, it was Mirajane.

[{}]

The spot Azazel had chosen for the meeting was well away from Kuoh, at a place that would have taken hours to reach by conventional means took just a few seconds with magic. It was a quaint little fishing village that been built up around a cove that emptied out into the sea. As one of the few places in Japan still trying to live a more traditional kind of lifestyle, fishing was the bread and butter of the village. Fishermen would depart on their boats in the early mornings and ply their trade out in the seas, returning with hauls of fish and crustaceans of all kinds that they would trade for rice paddies and other grain at the local market.

Of course they weren't actually in the town itself but were camped out on the shores of the cove. It was already creeping into the afternoon by then, so much of the boat traffic had died down, leaving only a few milling back and forth.

The request for the meeting wasn't much of a surprise. In truth, Naruto had been expecting it. One good thing he could say about the Grigori was that they had an impressive information network, easily on par with Naruto's own. There were few things that escaped their notice. Not that he had been trying to hide his involvement by any means, but it was still quite a feat to receive news of the church incident in less than thirty-six hours. Part of him couldn't help but wonder if Kokabiel himself had let some of the information slip when his followers hadn't reported back, just to raise tensions a little more. Azazel certainly seemed a little on edge as he cast his fishing line into the river.

He had to fight back a sigh when he realized they were going to be fishing. Those who had dealings with the Grigori governor probably viewed the random outings as a way for Azazel to put others out of their element. While there was certainly a degree of that, Naruto felt it was more a by-product than the actual intent. What he considered far more likely was simply that Azazel was just not faring so well in the friendship department. It would certainly explain why he always wanted to conduct business during some kind of activity. The last time he and Azazel had crossed paths, their talks had been held at a strip club.

That's not to say it was all that surprising either. Angels adhered to a strict command structure, one that had been drastically reformed after Lucifer's rebellion. The chain of command became a vital component of the heavenly host and it was exceedingly rare for any angel to disobey an order. It made the choir a well oiled machine, but it didn't allow much in the way of personal freedom as consequence; and there was sort of an ingrained instinct for an angel to always obey their superior. Even the fallens weren't immune. The Grigori still had its loose conglomeration of a hierarchy and with Azazel at the very top, he probably felt a degree of loneliness, even isolation, from all the subordinates that did whatever he asked.

At least devils knew how to cut loose. For the most part.

"What exactly are we fishing for here?" Naruto asked as he cast out his line and took a seat beside the Grigori Governor.

"Yellowtails are the most common catch in this area." Azazel readily informed. "I find that the young ones are always so reckless, sticking close to the shore. Its the older ones that seem to know better. They move to the deeper parts of the water. I suppose they realize at some point that its better to keep out of sight. It helps prevent difficulties."

Naruto initial response was lost when he caught a bite not a minute after he cast out his line. He gave only a little reel to make sure it was securely on before he lobbed it out of the water in one motion using a bit of his power. He grinned at the sight of his own hooked fish, a yellowtail that was at least a few pounds heavy.

"Alas, there are times when they simply never get the chance. But that is to be expected when they take the bait."

There was no response and Naruto glanced over to see Azazel looking as though he had just eaten a particularly sour lemon. "You cheated. Using your powers takes all the fun out of it."

He smirked at the man's childish whine. "Cheating is a relative term used only when someone is caught in the act. Otherwise it is simply viewed as intelligence, yes?"

Azazel looked for all the world as though he were trying to think of a response. "Enough of this banter," He finally declared, scowling for just a moment at Naruto's smirk before he turned more serious. "What exactly are you planning to do with my subordinates?"

Naruto looked genuinely surprised to her that. "I wasn't aware I was holding any of your people captive?

Azazel shot him a blank look in response. "Raynare and Kalawarner."

Another line was cast out and Naruto waved him off. "Oh, surely you don't mean to imply those two were still part of the Grigori when they committed such a heinous act? The very idea that fallen angels could be so far from their purview is mind boggling." He looked over at Azazel with a much too broad grin. "Why, the only way I could even believe such a thing, was if you would like to admit to ordering the rather brazen positioning of fallen angels on devil territory. Against two of the pillar families no less."

The blonde's smile was enough to make him click his tongue, but he had the advantage here and they both knew it. While Azazel _could_ admit to having commanded Raynare's presence in Kuoh, something that would give him a leg to stand on for demanding their return, it would imply that all the group's actions had been sanctioned by the Grigori. If he tried to argue that Raynare had exceeded her boundaries it would only show weakness and an inability to control his own forces. Neither was a particularly good option, the latter more so since Azazel knew full well that there were more than devils who would look to take advantage of the situation.

Claiming that they had acted without his orders would label them as rogues, which allowed Azazel to more or less wash his hands of the entire affair. It was the kind of back and forth the factions had been doing for centuries; probing each other for weaknesses and falling back on the terms of the armistice when they got caught.

Not for the first time, Azazel wondered whether it would truly have been so bad to send out a higher tier fallen to deal with the situation. It may have raised some semblance of alarm among the other factions but at least he wouldn't have had to worry about such a gross case of poor judgement, as Raynare had exhibited.

"They were sent only to monitor Issei Hyoudou. The sacred gear's presence had become noticeable but had yet to activate, and I feared its trigger would have collateral damage."

Naruto sent him a side-long look, recognizing the olive branch for what it was. "Did you know it was the boosted gear?"

He didn't answer right away, too preoccupied with a nibble of his own. He reeled the line in with care, only to grumble when he saw that his catch had managed to escape.

"I suspected." Azazel finally said as he flicked his fishing line out again.

The fact that a sacred gear had been dormant for so long was nothing out of the ordinary. Theoretically, carriers could live out their entire lives without even knowing they held one. What was unusual, however, was that the Kuoh boy's gear had become noticeable, despite the fact that it was dormant. It may have been a minute presence but the fact that it started 'leaking out' at all despite its inactive state pointed to it being one of the stronger variants.

It was what had drawn Azazel's concern. As much as he had come to admire his father's ingenuity with the sacred gear system he had also bared witness to its potential problems. More than once, Azazel had been forced to send out fallen angels to slay holders who had lost control, either because the gear activated prematurely, or because it was simply too much for the host to handle.

In that regard, it was usually the containers of the Longinus that inflicted the most damage, the heavenly dragons in particular. Boosted Gear and Divine Dividing were notorious for causing havoc even in controlled environments, to say nothing of their wielder's constant fights with each other. Even imprisoned within their sacred gears, the dragons still had quite the penchant for destruction; a point hammered home by a former wielder of boosted gear. He had gone on a rampage, annihilating close to half a city before he'd finally been put down.

Each side was always on the lookout for the holders of the heavenly dragons, if only to monitor them. It was why Azazel had considered himself fortunate to have found the wielder of Divine Dividing, it had only left one of them unaccounted for.

"So you're chalking this whole thing up to noble intentions gone awry then." A sardonic chuckle escaped the blonde. "That's become something of a theme of yours lately hasn't it?"

Azazel bristled. "I was simply trying to make sure things didn't get out of hand."

Naruto raised a brow. The fact that they were in talks proved just how well that had gone over. "Good job."

The sarcastic drawl made the governor's eyes flash. "I meant the boosted ge-"

Naruto cut him off, his friendly demeanour beginning to slip. "I know what you meant Azazel. But that's part of the problem, you never stop to think before you act. What did you imagine would be the result of sending a group of fallen angels right next to devil territory? One might almost think that you wanted a war."

The accusation, however light in the delivery, was enough to make Azazel snap. "I was trying to save lives! You know perfectly well what happened the last time a Longinus user lost control. If averting another catastrophe like that meant _inconveniencing_ a few devils, than so be it. I would rather risk raising tensions then deal with another rampaging dragon!"

A lingering silence stretched in the wake of Azazel's heated shout, brokered only by the sound of the governor's agitated breaths and the reeling of fishing lines.

"You know, technically speaking, sacred gears fall under the jurisdiction of heaven."

Azazel brow furrowed in annoyance. It was true, certainly, but, aside from a few sporadic sightings in hallowed ground like the Vatican, angels hadn't been seen outside the celestial realm since the end of the Great War. They seemed to prefer leaning on the church to pick up the slack, even though the faithful were no longer as numerous as they used to be.

This time it was Azazel's turn to speak dryly, "And what an _excellent_ job they're doing too. Why, you can't even tell that there are problems with the system."

Naruto's lips formed a very derisive smirk, but he said nothing more and let the silence stretch between them as they continued to fish. Azazel seemed to relax more with each passing moment, clearly deriving a great sense of enjoyment from the simple activity.

Naruto eventually broke it with a tilt of his head. "So then, to summarize everything, you fucked up and I cleaned up the mess." He turned to flash Azazel a bright smile. "Let's just be smart and call it even."

It was a gross oversimplification of the entire affair, one that had Azazel looking over at his companion in a kind of shocked stupor before he just let out a snort. "You know," Azazel remarked lightly as he cast out another line, "diplomacy is more of a give and take sort of thing."

Naruto shot the Grigori leader a grin in response. "Indeed, its why I'm also _giving_ you some free advice. At Azazel's questioning look Naruto elaborated. "Apparently, it was your old pal Kokabiel who sent Raynare her new orders."

There was no mistaking the governor's surprise. He stilled, looking off to the side. "Kokabiel has been keeping more to himself lately." He slowly admitted.

"You haven't found that odd?"

Azazel shrugged. "He's always slinking away somewhere to cool off whenever I reject one of his crazy plans. I haven't really thought much of it."

The lazy response was to be expected from Azazel but Naruto couldn't help but feel irritated with the governor. It was people like Kokabiel who had become something of an increasing problem in the last half century, hard liners and battle maniacs who had grown restless ever since the Great War had turned to something of a more cold front.

There were elements of them in every faction, instigating fights whenever possible and simply trying to restart the conflict in earnest. Since the leaders wanted to avoid another war, offences were typically solved through back room deals and concessions in attempts to preserve the fragile cease-fire. That just made the hard liners angrier and even more determined by escalating their efforts.

It had developed into a rather vicious cycle.

Which was why Serafall did not tolerate it in the Underworld. Any devil foolish enough to start an unprovoked attack on another faction was dealt with, severely. It was a discipline standard the other groups had not seemed to have adopted, however. Angel appearances may have been very rare since the end of the war, but it didn't stop their human proxies from stirring up events that forced them to respond, lest they lose the few believers they had left. And Azazel seemed to be far too lax with his own group, an action that may well have explained the recent increase in fallen angel transgressions.

Naruto directed a cold look toward the Grigori governor, his friendly demeanour disappearing entirely. A magical pressure began to build while the blonde's eyes gained an ethereal glow. "Then I would suggest you stop playing around with daddy's toys and start thinking about addressing this problem. Because I promise you Azazel, if one of your crows causes problems for Serafall again, you and I will share words."

The tone made it clear that their next exchange would involve a very _pointed_ conversation. There was a flash and Azazel looked over to see that the blonde had disappeared. He stared at the place the man had been, trying to repress a shudder. Maybe it was his rather unique nature or his shifting personality, but there was just something so inherently off about Naruto that Azazel always found himself instinctively on guard around him; in a way not even Michael or Sirzechs could make him feel.

Azazel's eyes flicked back to the water and he couldn't help but scowl. Worst of all, the angel's little power display had scared away the fish.

[{}]

The open notebook was sprawled out where it had been since the start of the lesson, the pages still blank. With the class almost half over, Rias should have had at least a couple pages worth of notes. In fact, given that the subject matter was a personal favourite of hers- a history lesson on the Edo period of Japan- she should have had at least twice that amount in notation.

As it was, Rias had to fight to keep her attention fixed on her sensei's lecture. She was usually more focused while she was at school, but recent events had her mind wandering. Issei had been returned to their clubroom in the dead of night by Naruto's familiar almost two days ago. The fairy, herself, had given only the barest explanation before vanishing as quickly as she had appeared. It was only when Issei had woken up that she understood what exactly had happened. Knowing that he had gone against her express command to stop seeing the nun had irked her but it was nothing compared to hearing him admit that he had willingly gone into fallen angel territory in a foolish attempt to rescue the girl.

Any other king would have dolled out a severe punishment. Not only had he gone against her explicit instructions, but he had committed an action that could have easily started a war. As it was though, Rias was just so grateful to have him back safe and sound that she had kept things relatively light. A tiny smile graced her lips at the thought. Issei had naturally assumed that it was the doubling of his time on flier duty that was the worst of it. But, in truth, it would be his upcoming lessons with Akeno on the supernatural that would really drive her displeasure home.

There were some perks to having a sadistic queen in her peerage.

What was really bothering her about the whole thing was the fact that Issei's friend was still missing. He hadn't stopped inquiring about the nun since he regained consciousness and as much as she would've liked to assure him that she was fine, the simply truth was that she just didn't know. There was only one person who could give her the answer to that of course, and it would have been a simple matter to search around town and find him but every time she tried to muster up the courage, she faltered.

She still felt shivers remembering what Issei had described seeing at the church before blacking out; a blonde haired man encompassed with a holy aura, a pair of gigantic wings sprouting from his back.

The angel of Leviathan.

Rias had heard of the moniker before, of course. All pure blood devils grew up learning about the most prominent figures in the Underworld, particularly those of a satan's peerage. She had thought that Naruto's was just a kind of self styled title though, something he called himself to mock the heavenly host. After all, evil pieces were meant to reincarnate people into devils. Even if he had been an angel before becoming Leviathan's queen, he should not have been able to remain one after- the very process would surely have marked him as a fallen.

It was something she had thought all but confirmed when she had actually met him. Naruto's presence didn't even exude a rough semblance of a holy aura. If anything, he bore a faint demonic one- something she had simply taken to mean that he had such finite control over his own power that he was able to suppress most of it.

Never, in her wildest dreams, did she think the moniker was actually real. Or that such a simple discovery, could make her so hesitant.

She knew it was ridiculous, irrational even, to believe that Naruto was up to something nefarious just because he was an angel. More so, considering that he was an angel in a satan's peerage, one that had been part of the Underworld since long before she was even born. And yet, that tiny part of her persisted.

The source of that believe wasn't hard to fathom. She had grown up being taught that angels found the very existence of devils to be abhorrent and that they would go to almost any means to kill them on sight. It was the sole desire the heavenly host shared with their fallen counterparts; many a battle in the Great War had been made difficult because of it, as devils were forced to defend themselves on two fronts.

More than her uncertainty though, even more than the concern of her pawn's friend, was the matter of her pride. Rias preferred to be kept abreast on matters within her own territory and it was frustrating to her that she seemed to be the only one who felt that way. When she had inquired on the matter to Sona, her best friend had simply shrugged and said that if she had learned anything from her sister, it was to give Naruto a wide latitude when he was out on an assignment. Sona had gone on to say that he would check in later but Rias didn't think her friend truly believed that.

Of course, officially speaking, Rias was aware that she wasn't obliged to expect much. Naruto was in Kuoh on the orders of Leviathan herself, he certainly didn't report to her. Still, Rias felt she was owed some kind of explanation. It did concern her personally after all.

The stirring of conversation in the classroom shook Rias from her musing. Hushed whispers brokered among the students and one of the girls seated behind her was talking to her friend.

"Have you ever seen him before?"

"I wish I had," her friend wistfully replied, "he looks so yummy."

"Wonder what he's doing here."

Rias followed their line of sight, her eyes widening as she found herself staring at the very man she'd just been thinking about standing inside the classroom threshold. How long had he been there? She hadn't even heard the door opening.

"Naruto."

She was calling him before she was actually aware of it, paying no heed to the sudden quiet that seemed to have gripped the classroom as more than a few eyes turned toward her.

Including a pair of bright cerulean that instantly flicked toward the lone devil in the room.

"Ah, there you are Rias."

The back and forth acknowledgement between the pair had some of the students gaping. Combining it with the obvious implication that Rias already knew the blonde hunk in their midst had the whispers rekindling with a vengeance. Rias herself couldn't help but flush when one of them suggested that the two were dating. It immediately kicked off a round of speculation among her peers about how they met and how serious the relationship was.

Rias was relieved when Aiko-sensei stepped in.

"Excuse me sir, but there is a class going on. I'll have to ask you to leave."

Naruto turned towards the history teacher, his lips curving into a decidedly roguish grin. "My sincerest apologies for the disruption my dear, but I desperately need a private moment to speak with Rias."

The woman's stern countenance fell to pieces and she looked like a shy school girl being confronted by her crush. "I-I don't think. . ." She trailed off, swallowing her suddenly dry throat, "I don't think that would be proper."

It was one thing to see an almost entire class of teenage girls looking enamoured by his very presence but to see the usual cool and strict Aiko-sensei almost fumbling for a response had more than just Rias gaping.

"Perhaps not," Naruto pressed, "but surely you could make an exception just this once. I assure you it is a matter of some urgency."

"W-well if its just this once. . ."

She trailed off and Naruto's flirtatious smile settled into one of a more kind nature that actually made the woman blush. "Thank you miss. I really appreciate this."

He turned to Rias and beckoned her to follow.

The young devil quickly gathered up her things and hurried after him. "What are you doing here Naruto?" She asked the moment they stepped out into the hallway. "You can't just pull me out of class."

He shot her a side long glance. "Are you actually complaining about being let out of class early? Or are you just upset that the students are bound to spend the rest of the day spreading salacious tales about the two of us?" He grinned down at her. "I mean I did just take you away from your class for no foreseeable reason. Whatever could we be up to. . ."

Her face was practically burning now, to the point that it started to resemble her hair. She would admit that the possible rumors had been something of a concern to her the moment she heard the reactions of her classmates. Still, even if word of it did spread around, she would hardly consider it to be high on the list of things she would have to live down. It was certainly nothing compared to her excitable, older brother scooping her up into a crushing bear hug in the middle of the hallway and crowing about how happy he was to see his baby sister. At least he had been until his stern looking queen had arrived and quite literally dragged him back to work.

A liberal use of memory charm was the only thing that had allowed her to show her face in school again after that incident, and only Sona's help that had turned a day's worth of labour into a task that took just under an hour. It wasn't the first time the two of them had made good on there pact to help each other if either of their older siblings did anything overly embarrassing- which, unfortunately for the two of them, was a fairly common occurrence.

"How did you even do that? Persuade Aiko-sensei so well." Rias would admit to a curiosity in the matter. She hadn't felt so much as a glimmer of magic from Naruto when he had spoken with the teacher, so he obviously hadn't hypnotized her.

It was also a clear attempt to change the subject, and in a manner so blatant, Naruto couldn't help but smile. It seemed the young heiress had difficulty with subtlety under emotional duress.

"I simply asked nicely," Naruto responded with a shrug. "Not everything has to be overly complicated."

"Yes, but you didn't even use any magic."

"Well, I wouldn't say that. She was under the throes of a kind of spell."

Rias shot him a triumphant look. "I knew it. What did you do exactly?"

"I used my sex appeal."

The response was spoken in such a nonchalant manner that Rias just blinked. "You used your sex appeal?"

Naruto nodded emphatically. "Also known as charm to vampires and puritans."

The oddity of that comparison threw her for a loop for several seconds. Her mouth opened as if to ask, only to firmly clamp it shut a second later as she shook her head. It was probably best not to ask how the mind of Naruto Uzumaki worked. "I take it, there is a reason you came to Kuoh?"

"Of course."

Rias waited patiently for the senior devil to elaborate, but he did not. "Which is?"

"I won't say unless you grab hold of my hand."

That was a demand so reminiscent of her brother that her brow twitched almost on reflex. Her only consolation was that Naruto hadn't spoken in a petulant whine, though she could have done without him waggling his fingers in front of her face. Rias eyed him warily for a moment before slowly extending her own hand to meet his, silently promising herself that if this was something stupid, she would be sure to get revenge- peerage piece of a satan or not.

The moment his hand clasped onto hers there was a split second feeling of weightlessness and a flare of light so bright it made her eyes screw shut. They snapped open a split second later when she felt her feet firmly placed on solid ground and she realized with a start that she was no longer standing in the hallway of Kuoh Academy, but in an ornate looking entrance hall that wouldn't look out of place at her own family's estate in the Underworld.

The thought had her shoot an inquiring look toward Naruto. "I take it we are still in Kuoh?"

Naruto nodded as he stepped in front of her, arms stretched out toward his home as though he had just made a grand unveiling before the turned back to face her, a look of excitement on his face. "Welcome to my home away from other home, away from my real home."

It was bizarre as far as welcomes went, but Rias was beginning to grow accustomed to Naruto's quirks; whether that was good or bad was still up for debate.

By devil's standards the home wasn't a particularly large one- though if the inside was any indication it would certainly dwarf any of the usual residence buildings in Kuoh. Rias didn't have much time to speculate as Naruto led her through a door between the entranc e hall's dual staircases and into the living room.

There, she found a blonde haired girl lying on one of the plush couches in the room, her eyes closed, presumably asleep. And sitting in a chair across from the girl was a statuesque woman with navy blue hair, reading a book. A woman her senses were quick to register as a fallen angel.

Her power of destruction instantly flared to life, emitting as a crimson orb in her palm. Her arm was halfway extended to release the spell when it was quickly pushed back down. The whole thing startled her enough that her accumulated power dissipated.

"Ease up there, short fuse." Naruto spoke with a chiding finger wag. "She works for me now."

Rias looked over to see that, indeed, the fallen angel had made no move to attack. She had risen from her seat, however, and her golden eyes were narrowed with distain while her whole body went tense.

"Kalawarner, where is Fiona?"

The moment Naruto spoke, Rias watched as Kalawarner's entire demeanour shifted. The aggressive posture completely disappeared, replaced with a more servile attitude. She even inclined her head in a gesture of respect.

"Your familiar is in the kitchen. She said something about supervising Raynare."

That brought a twinge of a smile to his lips. Knowing Fiona's sweet tooth, she had forced Raynare into baking some kind of desert. Perhaps he shouldn't have told the two that they needed to follow _all_ of Fiona's orders while he was gone. "Tell her I need to see her right away." He added almost as an afterthought. "The rest of the day is yours."

That was enough to garner a smile from Kalawarner and Rias watched in annoyance as she gave an even deeper bow than before, an action purposely designed to draw attention to her cleavage. She could have sworn the woman added an extra sway to her hips as she left. It was a show Naruto seemed to have no problem watching. He even craned his head to watch until she left the room.

Rias rounded on Naruto the moment she was gone. "You have fallen angels working for you? The same ones that have been squatting in my territory for close to a week and, just days ago, were responsible for attacking my pawn? Why?!" It was a fight for her just to keep her composure. It was one thing to keep her wrath contained out of fear of sparking an international incident, it was quite another to do so when she was in a position to deliver the punishment she felt was so richly deserved.

"Why not?"

It was all Naruto offered in response and the simple answer had her blue-green eyes swirling with a tinge of red. "For attacking my servants, they deserve to be punished."

"And they have been." He admitted, rather offhand.

". . .what?"

The dumbfounded look on her face elicited a chuckle from her senior. "Do not think they simply got away with everything Rias. They put both you and Sona at risk after all and I've been charged with keeping you safe. I can assure you their punishment was quite severe, and it is one that will stay with them for quite some time."

The mention of him delivering a punishment was enough to stamp out most of her fury and Rias felt like she was rapidly losing ground in this debate. "Well, what's to stop them from just going back to the Grigori?"

"The reason is quite simple: they can't. Their actions have been publicly condemned, they have nowhere to go and they know it. They stand alone. And, in the future Rias, I'll thank you not to tell me how to do my job."

There was a hint of steel in his tone with his last statement, enough to snuff out the last embers of anger. In place of the righteous fury burning through her was a bundle of anxiety She was suddenly aware of just how far she had grossly overstepped her bounds. Naruto just seemed to have a way of making others forget just who he was, until he pulled the rug out from under them.

"Forgive me, I didn't-"

Naruto cut her off with a dismissive wave before she could finish, "Oh relax, its not that big of a deal." For a moment he just seemed to stare at her, as though he was seeing her for the first time. "You do seem to care about your peerage a great deal though."

That was such a strange observation to make about a Gremory devil that it threw Rias for a loop. It was rather well known that her family had a reputation for being more affectionate toward their servants than most of the other pillars. Yet Naruto seemed fascinated by the information, as though it were a new development. "W-well of course I do. I consider all my peerage members to be part of the my family."

There was that look again as Naruto just hummed in acknowledgement.

"Welcome back Master."

Fiona's entrance forestalled any more thoughts Rias had on the matter as the sprite flew toward the couch where Asia was laying.

Naruto returned the greeting with a nod while he moved to the girl's side and laid a hand on her forehead. Her skin felt cold, clammy.

"How is she doing?"

Fiona sighed sadly, the luminescence of her wings dimming for a moment in response. "She's fading, but holding on. For now at least."

Rias, who had been watching the procession from a respectable distance, felt a pang of pity now that she had time to truly take in the sight of the girl. She looked like death warmed over, and the sound of those weak, shallow breaths wasn't helping. Was this the friend Issei had tried so hard to help?

"Naruto is she-"

"The nun your pawn tried to save?" Naruto finished, his head turning to her for a moment before he looked back at Asia. "Yes."

Her gaze flicked back to the girl, a look of concern in blue-green eyes. "What's wrong with her?"

"The fallen angels had a plan for her and I was too late arriving to stop it. They removed her sacred gear, and without it-"

This time Rias finished for him. "She's dying."

Naruto offered a remorseful nod. "Fiona has been able to prolong her life. It was never for long, but it was enough for her to make a decision." He paused, looking back at Asia. "It's my understanding that you still have some evil pieces left."

Rias just blinked, not quite comprehending. The last thing she had expected when Naruto had practically strong-armed her into following him was that she would be getting a new peerage member and it threw her for a loop. Finally, she managed to stammer out an affirmative. She moved closer as Naruto stepped back, her hand extending to summon one of her pieces, only to stop midway through.

Naruto had said that her sacred gear had been removed. The girl no longer had one of the most important assets for any devil king to consider reincarnation. The perils devils had to face were not for the faint of heart, and from what Issei had described, Rias was able to surmise that this Asia girl had a gentle nature. Maybe. . .it would be better, kinder even, not to.

It was a selfish thought, one that had Rias biting her lip as she found herself mulling it over more and more. For as much as she would like to pretend that it would be in the nun's best interests, the truth of the matter was that a reincarnation may not be ideal for herself. Events were approaching for the heiress, things she would need strong pieces for, and without a sacred gear to gain from the trade, she wasn't entirely sure losing a piece would be worth it. She didn't even know this girl.

But her thoughts turned to Issei, of her pawn's constant inquiries into Asia's whereabouts ever since he had regained consciousness. He had spoken passionately, with tearful pleas that had compelled her to look into the matter. It was clear that her pawn cared for the nun. And the one thing she'd sworn to herself when she had first gotten her evil pieces was that she would treat her servants like her family.

A miniature magic circle flashed on her outstretched palm and a bishop piece appeared in her hand. She placed it on Asia' sternum and began to chant. "I call upon you now to join in the ranks of Rias Gremory. Rise now as a devil and to the new family that welcomes you with open arms. Rejoice in your new life and, now, awaken."

A magic circle bearing the Gremory crest materialized below the girl's body at the end of the incantation. The evil piece responded in kind, flaring a bright red as it sank into her chest. A flash of light signalled the completion of the ritual as the magic circle dispelled. Rias let out a breath and stepped back. Now all that was left to do was wait.

Barley a few seconds had passed before Asia's breathing began to even out. The green light that appeared over her hands, however, was unexpected and it gave Rias pause. There should have been no reason for any kind of secondary reaction. Had something gone wrong?

"It seems her sacred gear has successfully reintegrated."

Naruto's comment had her mind whirling. Sacred gear? But hadn't he said that it was gone?

Rias looked between her new bishop and Naruto's impassive expression for a moment before realization kicked in and she turned to face the latter, a rather unladylike snort escaping her. "You were testing me, weren't you?"

Naruto pointed to himself, an incredulous look on his face as though the very thought was ludicrous. "What? You mean you think I purposely misled you into believing her sacred gear was gone just to see how you'd react, whether you'd even reincarnate her at all?" The expression fell away then and Naruto's lips stretched into a positively wicked smile as he leaned down into Rias' personal space. "That's crazy."

That should've left her feeling irritated- more so because there was a part of her that had actually considered doing just that- but that playful tone of his elicited only a stirring of amusement from her. Not that she was going to let him know that as she grumbled a question.

"What if I hadn't?"

Naruto shrugged. "Then I would've asked Sona instead, and you would've lost a golden opportunity."

That was putting it mildly. Knowing she had let Twilight Healing slip through her grasp was a loss Rias probably would've lamented for the rest of her considerable lifespan, one she would've been reminded of every time she saw her best friend.

"Why bother testing me at all?"

"I've heard things about you from your brother. I wanted to see if they were true."

The mention of Sirzechs made her feel as though a cold shiver was running down her spine. Her older, sis-con of a brother telling Naruto about her. . .the implications alone made her pale. What exactly had they talked about, just how many things had her brother revealed? Had he told Naruto any embarrassing stories or worse, shown off those ridiculous photo albums of his that were the bane of her existence, collectively capturing the most mortifying moments of her childhood?

"What exactly did my brother tell you?"

The sound of a muffled groan diverted Rias from Naruto's answer and to her newest bishop. It seemed Asia was waking up. Her green eyes fluttered open while a hand moved up to grip her forehead, a reflexive attempt to stifle the dull ache in her skull. The complete lack of lethargic movement in her limps took her by surprise, as did the return of strength to her body. Now she was able to rise to a sitting position, something she'd been having more and more trouble with since the morning.

Fiona was the first to chirp a greeting to the sluggish girl as she left her overwatch perch and began a lazy flight toward her master. She'd started to develop a fondness for the nun and was pleased to see that she would live on.

The mere sight of the fairy was enough to get Asia to relax. Part of her had feared the sudden lack of ailment in her body meant that she had died. Still, she asked just to be sure. "I'm still alive?"

"Well, only for the next ten thousand years or so." Naruto added with a grin as his familiar perched atop his head, her form partially obscured by his spiky hair. "How do you feel?"

"I'm feeling a little disorientated." Asia remarked as she sat up fully, rubbing her eyes.

"That will pass soon." Rias quickly pitched in. "Your body just needs time to adjust."

Asia looked toward the source of the new voice and finally noticed the red headed stranger in her midst.

Naruto followed her gaze and motioned toward Rias. "Introductions then. Asia this is Rias Gremory, the devil who revived you. Rias this is Asia Argento, your new bishop."

"Its nice to meet you," Asia muttered shyly. She wasn't quite sure what to expect from a devil anymore. Her encounter with Issei had made it clear enough that not all devils were as the church had described them.

Rias couldn't hope to contain the smile that spread across her lips. The girl's shyness was cute enough and the earnest, polite nature was so unexpected from a church convert that she found it very endearing. She may have been given a semblance of Asia's character from Issei's descriptions but it was better to judge for herself. At the very least, Rias was confident she didn't have to worry that her new bishop was a staunch supporter of church doctrine.

"Hello Asia. I'm looking forward to having you in my peerage."

Peerage? The word indicated that she had just been inaugurated into a king's court. The idea of which made Asia feel more than a little nervous. Was Rias a member of royalty? Did it mean that she had to address Rias in a specific manner?

"I'm sorry but I don't quite understand."

Rias didn't seem bothered by the question. "It means that you are now a vassal to the Gremory House, and my servant specifically. Every devil has a different relationship with their peerage but, to me, I think of them as part of my family."

That was enough to elicit a small smile from Asia. She had never known her parents, and her earliest memories were of her time at the small Abbey in Tuscany. But though the people there had been friendly and had looked after her, there had never been anything overly familial about it all. Things had only gotten worse when she had been moved to the capital. The bishop, priests, and nuns at the cathedral were distant and there was no-one of her own age to associate with.

The feeling of a hand on her head brought her out of her introspection to see Naruto smiling down at her. "You didn't really think I'd let you get taken in by just any devil now, did you?"

It was still something she was still coming to terms with. A real angel had come to her aid when she had needed it the most, protected and guided her to the kind of life she had only been able to dream of. For so long she had held onto the belief that the unfortunate events in her life was just a test of her faith, and that if she could just hold fast and overcome them, then her dreams would come true. Naruto had given her all that and so much more.

The hug took him by surprise but he responded quickly enough as she buried her face into his chest and allowed herself to shed tears of joy. There were no words that would ever truly convey just how grateful she was for everything he'd done.

"Thank you."

It was all she could manage.

* * *

 **So. . .I'm getting really good at this update thing right?**

 **I was originally planning to do Asia's resurrection off-screen, as it were, but I wanted to show Rias' reaction to the fallen angels still being alive and by that point it wouldn't really make sense to just end the chapter.**

 **And yes, demons are a thing in this fic. A separate thing even. We've seen the parallels between angels and fallen and I figured the Old Satan loyalists give a chance for a kind of mirror image situation in the Underworld. And who better to introduce as the first demon than Fairy Tail's Mirajane.**

 **Anyway, the next chapter won't take nearly as long. Hopefully. . .**

 **I'll also start to shift the focus over to Sona and her peerage a little more. For a rival group to Rias, they never seemed all that fleshed out to me in canon. If it wasn't for the DxD wiki, I wouldn't even know most of their names.**


End file.
